


Revolution

by NSkellington



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Balmeran Hunk, F/M, Family Drama, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith is a prince, M/M, Multi, Olkari Pidge, Space War, human shiro, king alfor just died, so is lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:28:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NSkellington/pseuds/NSkellington
Summary: King Alfor was dead and his heirs are missing; Zarkon and his armies will stop at nothing to control the entire universe, and the young galra prince is hiding a dangerous secret.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So… hi! This is my first fanfic in a very long time, and the first ever that it’s written in English. So it’s very possible that it’s has a lot some mistakes (sorry about that). But I also hope you like it, I know I did :D

The Galra empire was in one word: big. Everything inside of it was big. The houses, the vehicles, the people and especially the castle. A grand and intimidating structure build right in the middle of the capital, as if it was watching the people’s every little move and _judging_. The tall towers pierced the red skies and the grand hall was large enough to accommodate one large army.

And that’s exactly where the emperor’s personal large army was, thousands and thousands of galra soldiers were standing right in front of the castle just waiting. Some talked, others were sitting on the floor, and there were even some who were laughing. And they all stood in silence as their emperor, Zarkon, stepped in front of them from the balcony above.  

“King Alfor is dead.” Zarkon said emotionless. His army looked at him for below, no one daring to look away, as if the speech would stop if they did. “It was I who slashed his throat. Altea has fallen, I was there when it crumble under our blasters. The heirs have fled. I saw as the castle disappeared into the stars, giving their backs upon the people they swore to protect. And three of the lions of Voltron are under our control.” The warriors exploded in cheers and Zarkon raised his hand, silencing the crowd almost instantly. “And yet, with all those victories, we haven’t won.” The warriors seemed confused, some were a little sad, and others really tried to hide their anger. Their emperor didn’t mind. “We haven’t won for the simple fact that two teenagers were able to escape us. And those teenagers are more than the children of our fallen enemy, they are hope. Hope to defeat us, to attack us. Hope to any planet that thinks they are safe from us. They are wrong!” Zarkon raised his voice, stand regal and decisive for his troops. He never looked more intimidating than now. “We are Galra! We don’t forgive, we don’t forget, and we WILL control the entire universe. And because of that we will get the rest of the lions, and we will kill those teenagers. We will kill every sign of hope, and they WILL die screaming. Galrans!” The soldiers fed on his words like it was their salvation, and the more Zarkon screamed with anger (and yet pride) it was like lighting a flame of courage in every single soldier. “Are you ready to take the universe?” They all screamed, showing their emperor something he already knew. That his soldiers were ready to die if he asked them to. That they would never stop fighting. That’s why they were going to win! Zarkon gave the troops one last proud look and raised his fist. “Then let’s go and take it!”

The soldiers scream again and Zarkon left them.

The princes were watching the speech from above, already inside the castle. Lotor was the first to look away, it always amazed him how well his father spoke. You could say whatever you wanted about Zarkon, but not that he didn’t knew how to give a damn good speech.

“Whatta think?” Lotor asked his brother without looking at him.

“The heirs don’t even stand a chance.” Keith said stepping away from the window.

It was common knowledge that prince Lotor and prince Keith did not have the same mother. Lotor was the oldest son and his mother was the witch Haggar. From his mother he got the white hair and long red markings on his cheeks, those along with the great height, purple skin, slim body and long fangs gave him an intimidating, mysterious and (from time to time) charming aura.

Since Lotor was the perfect blend of his parents, Keith was more like his father:  a perfect example of a galra soldier, with purple fur, long ears, bright yellow eyes and sharp claws. The only defect of the younger prince was his height: to short to be taken seriously. No one knew exactly the reason for the young prince to have that defect (since both of his parents were strong galrans), but Keith made it up with speed and strength, becoming the youngest general of Zarkon army.

“My sons.”  Zarkon said while stepping in the conference room.

Both princes turned to their father and bowed.

 “Allura ran away with the castle.” The emperor said looking at the map on the wall. “We can only assume she also has the black and blue lions”.

“It’s pretty obvious she has the blue lion.” Lotor said crossing his arms. “Lance ran away with her, didn’t he?”

“There was no visual confirmation of the blue lion or it’s paladin” Zarkon answered. “But for now it is a safe assumption” He then turned to his sons. “I want both of you to make this your top priority: Find princess Allura, prince Lance, the altean castle and the remaining lions. Take as many men as you need. Just find them, and bring them to me.” 

“As you wish, father.” The princes said with a last bow and left to room.

In the hallway Lotor stretched his arms and looked to his brother.

“What do you want to do, little brother?” Keith’s face turned sour and Lotor laughed, he knew that Keith hated to be called “little”. “Wanna make things interesting?”

“Interesting how?”

“A race.” Both of them stopped walking and were facing each other. “To see who can find them first.”

“What will I get when I win?” it was Keith turn to cross his arms.

Lotor laughed again. “IF you win, little brother, I will give you whatever you  want. You just have to name it. But when I win you’ll have to give your precious toy.”

Keith pressed his lips in a thin line, his “toy” (as Lotor liked to call him) was the present Zarkon gave Keith on his birthday many decapheeb ago: the champion of the galra games, the human warrior Takashi Shirogane, also known as Keith’s best friend. Lotor always had a fascination on Shiro, on how such a sensitive little creature could also have so much strength and determination. And Lotor wanted, for as long as Keith can remember, to break him.

“What makes you so sure you’re going to win?” Keith asked, avoiding the subject “Shiro” like the plague.

“I have a new friend, if you must know.”

“You don’t have friends, Lotor.”

“Let’s just say that I am being very convincing with this one.” Keith wasn’t buying any of it, but Lotor dropped the matter and offered his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

The young prince stared at Lotor’s hand for a moment, but took it without thinking much on the matter.

“Deal.”

The princes shook hands and when on different paths.

“You can already say your goodbyes to your precious human, little brother.” Lotor said before disappearing in the hallways. The young prince didn’t waste his time on a reply.

Shiro was waiting for him in the way out, the human didn’t like the galra castle and often avoided getting inside. Keith never saw a reason to deny him that comfort.

“Heard your father’s speech.” He said when Keith got next to him. “It was quite inspiring.”

“Never mind that, Shiro. We have work to do.” Keith said while walking to his vessel, Shiro follow.

“What is it?”

“Two things at the moment.”

They entered the vessel and Shiro whispered: “There’s something to do with you know what?”

“One of them, yes. As for the other…” they exchanged a look and Keith continued. “I don’t think you are going to like the other one.”

“Shoot.”

“We need to send a message for our friends, telling them the new situation we are in. Also we need to warn them to keep their eyes open for the heirs of Altea, who knows where they are?”

“Is that all?”

“No. We need to follow Lotor and see who is helping him in his search. He made it sound like it was someone important.”

The mere mention of Keith’s older brother was enough to make Shiro’s blood freeze. The older prince never missed a opportunity to make Shiro uncomfortable and (sometimes) scared. Lotor was just to creepy when Shiro was involved.

“Who’s gonna send the message? And who’s gonna follow Lotor?” Keith asked with a shit eating grin.

“Come on, Keith…”

“I also don’t wanna follow him around, you know?”

They exchanged another look and got their fists ready.

“Jankenpon!” both of them presented scissors.

“Jankenpon!” both got rocks.

“Jankenpon!” scissors again.

It was a silly game that Shiro thought Keith when the he was very little. It had fascinated the young prince (especially after Shiro told him it was a game from his home planet) and they would often play that when they found an impasse, it kept things light and fun. Which they really needed from time to time…

After the fifth round Shiro finally won with scissors, Keith groaned hiding his face in his hands. Shiro laughed and Keith just glared at him before jumping of the vessel.

“Good luck, Keith!” Shiro said before leaving with the vessel, not waiting to Keith turn at glare him again.

Keith allowed himself another groan and then walked to the castle once more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's why Lotor doesn't have any friends

The room where Coran was kept was small and really dark, with only one source of light located right on top of him. He couldn’t see a lot of the room, but he could smell the scent of rot and dry blood. He was tied up in a big chair, his arms and legs were contained with thick metal chains and his head was being kept in place by a high metal colar.

He heard the door opening and prince Lotor steeped into the light. Coran’s blood froze for a moment.

“Good night, Coran,” the prince said with a charming smile. Coran wasn’t buying it.

“Prince Lotor.”

“Do you know why you were the only one saved in Altea?”

“You want my help to find the heirs,” Coran answered in a growl. “I’m afraid you’re wasting your time.”

“Am I?” Lotor asked faking (quite badly) surprise.

Coran’s blue eyes battled Lotor’s yellow ones for some time and in the end it was the Altean who looked away. Lotor laughed.

“I always liked you, Coran. It pains me to see you like this.”

Coran refused to look at Lotor and the prince continued.

“It would be so much more easy if you could just tell me were Alura and Lance are…” Coran spat on Lotor face, but the prince didn’t seem surprised. In fact it didn’t look like he even noticed.

Lotor just cleaned his face and held Coran face, forcing the altean to look in his eyes. The hand holding Coran’s face started to tightening and when Coran’s face was released the claws in Lotor’s hand were covered in blood, so were Coran’s cheeks.

“It has always amazed my father how loyal alteans are.” Lotor said licking his claws. “look at you, Coran: without a home, without a family, without friends... And you still want to die for those kids.” Coran didn’t reply, but the prince could see his blue eyes getting darker. “It doesn’t surprise me really. After all you were the closest friend to the royal family. The closest friend of King Alfor.” Lotor touch the altean’s ear with his lips and whispered: “How was it, Coran? To see everything you know and love die?”

The Altean didn’t reply, he didn’t even moved. Lotor moved away and Coran didn’t look at him.

“I’m sorry, I keep forgetting your kind is – was – very touchy. Let’s talk about something else.”

“About you letting me go?” Coran asked with a dry tone.

 “How about something lighter first?” Lotor said with a smile, he didn’t wait for a reply from the Altean (he wasn’t even expecting one). “Do you hunt, Coran?”

That question surprised Coran to a point he replied with a weak voice: “When I have the time.”

“And do you know what makes a good hunter?” Again, the prince didn’t wait for a reply. “It’s how you skin your prey.” He moved closer to the altean once more. “It’s an art really. You need to be careful and precise, paying attention to not make holes in. So many little details… It’s a good hunter’s job to take the freshest skin possible, and it can only do that with the prey still alive. You know you are a good hunter when you finish your job and the prey is still breathing … and screaming.” Lotor made Coran face him, holding the altean face in his hand. “I’m a good hunter, Coran. Some dare say that I’m the best hunter in the planet. So I can promise you that I WILL find Allura and Lance.” The pressing on Coran’s face got stronger. “Without your help it will, of course, take some time, but I’ll find them. And when I do I’ll make sure that you’ll get to watch me taking out the skin of their faces. They WILL scream for you, they’ll beg for your help and you won’t be able to do anything. Because when I’m done with you, Coran, you won’t even be able to lift your head. But you will watch the heirs die. I’ll even make you bathe in their blood. Then, and only then, I’ll give you my permission to die. And you will die in the most painful death that I can imagine. And I have a very fertile imagination” Lotor released Coran’s face and smiled.  “But it doesn’t have to happen this way, Coran. As I said: I had always liked you. So please, just tell me where they are.”

For a moment it looked like Coran was thinking about it, and for that moment Lotor genuinely smiled. But the moment passed and Coran gave Lotor a sour look before saying with the angriest (yet controlled) tone of voice possible.

“Go fuck yourself, _nunak_.”

And Lotor snapped.

In one second he was calm, facing Coran with a smile. And in the other he was screaming and ripping the altean’s chest with hard punches. Not even Lotor knows how he stopped before killing Coran, but when he did the altean was reduced to a pile of ripped flesh and blood.

Lotor gave him one last kick and walked out of the room. Outside there were two guards waiting for him, and the prince didn’t waste any time.

“Send a druid to heal him.” His voice was lower than normal. “I want him back on his feet tomorrow!”

“Right away, sir,” both guards said and one ran away, disappearing in the vast halls.

Lotor faced the remaining guard.

“I want this door guarded all times, no one’s enters without my permission. It’s that clear?”

“Yes, my prince.”

“Good.” Lotor started walking away, but then turned to the guard again. “And I want to be told when he heals.”

Lotor left growling and the last thing the guard heard was:

“Can’t wait to break his legs again.”

The guard felt a little sorry for Coran, no one liked receiving the prince’s attention (not even the other galras). All he could do for the altean was to wish he would die fast, because Lotor loved to play with his prisoners and was known to take his time. Like their screams were music to his sick hears.

He shoot a last look to the cell were Coran was being kept and went back to his post, not noticing a small shadow in the far corner.

Keith looked at the door and heard Coran cry. The young prince never met the altean personally, but ever since he was little his nannies told him stories about the paladins of Voltron, about the brave and nobble King Alfor and about his loyal advisor Coran. Keith often imagined who they were and if they were as awesome as the nannies made them seem.  Coran didn’t sound awesome, not at all, he sound broken. And the prince could never judge him for that. It must not be easy to be him right now, and Keith could only imagine what Lotor would do to him to make him talk.

Lotor would keep his promise and make Coran scream for days. But Keith was not going to allow that. Not in a million years. Not when he could do something about it.

The prince left the castle without being seen and called Shiro in his communicator.

“Shiro, did you already send that message?”

“I was just about to. Why?”

“I need you to ad that they need to prepare for a new guest.”

Shiro didn’t reply right away, but when he did his tone was a little more serious.

“And when this new guest will be arriving?”

“Hopefully tomorrow.”

“Should I be worried?”

That made Keith laugh.

“Oh, Shiro. It seems you don’t know me at all!” and then, just for the heck of it, he added. “You should be terrified.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: a billion thanks to whoever took the time to read this, it’s very gratifying to me and I hope you are enjoying as much as I am S2.  
> Second of all I want to say thanks to everyone who sent me tips and corrections on my writing. English it's not my first language but I'm trying my best and I really appreciate whoever helps me improve. Really, thank you.  
> And before I forget (again…) I took the inspiration for the story in this image right here: https://68.media.tumblr.com/fd167eb5f07a34143c868ea4e6b46ed0/tumblr_okslx79lki1vzmlrao2_r1_500.png (originally it was from tumblr, but I can’t find the link anymore). If you want more images that I took for inspiration please do tell me.  
> And I hope to see you all in chapter 3!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro gets scared and Lotor gets furious.

“This plan sucks!” Shiro said for the millionth time.

 “You always say that,” Keth replied not paying much attention to him.

He and Keith were walking in the tallest roof they could find near the galra castle. They could see almost the entire capital, with its big houses, blue trees and red skies. But the amazing sight was not working for the human.

“But this time I really mean it!” The prince laughed. “I’m serious! Lotor is gonna kill us.”

“Lotor won’t do anything because he’ll never find out.” Shiro gave Keith a look. “Now, it’s the ship ready?”

Shiro didn’t reply right away, he didn’t want to do this. Keith finally looked at him and the human spoke:

“I know you are not concerned, but – like it or not – you are the _young prince_. I’m just a guy that you seem to like. If we get caught, Lotor is going to kill me,” Then he looked away and added with a lower voice. “Or worse.”

Keith often forgot about Shiro’s past. On how he was snapped from his home planet, tortured and experimented on. How he was always treated by the other galras as a pet, and how Lotor would never let him be. It was easy for Keith to forget, with him Shiro showed another side of himself. A side that was playful and relaxed. But that wasn’t Shiro, not all of him.

“I’m sorry,” Keith said touching him in the shoulder, “but there’s no other way, Shiro. You know that. I would never let anything happen to you, you know that.”

Shiro took a few seconds to just breathe, and when he was calm enough Keith asked:

“Is the ship ready?”

“Yes...” Shiro replied with a weak smile.

“Nice!”

And just like that: they jumped.

The roof was not far from one of the castle walls and it should not be a problem to reach it (It really wasn’t). Keith and Shiro hanged on the wall for a couple seconds, just to catch their breaths, and then they were going up.

The galra castle was one of the largest buildings in the galaxy, it was a symbol of the galra power. And fair enough: it was freaking tall. But Keith and Shiro only had to climb a few stores to reach the window they wanted.

The window took them to an empty room, which wasn’t really a surprise. That part of the castle was almost entire empty, the exact reason Keith couldn’t say (no one never told him) but, in his love for quiet and empty places, it didn’t take him long to learn about every single corner of that abandoned wing. They walked in the empty hall and stopped at the end. There was an opening in the air tunnel. Keith smiled again.

“Ready?”

Shiro returned the smile, thankful for being taken in consideration. Even scared he knew that if he really didn’t want to do something, Keith would never force him. “Ready.”

They got in the tunnel and started crawling.

They didn’t know how long they stood in the tunnel crawling in the deeps of the castle, but Keith knew they were getting close.

Suddenly Coran’s screams invaded the tunnel, making them stand still. The screams continued and Keith, very slowly began to follow. Shiro was right behind him and his fear was almost touchable, but the human was holding up pretty well. They reached an opening and Keith slowly leaned forward.

It was Lotor favorite torture cell, he already knew that. Bellow, Coran was tied up with a very tired looking druid on top of him. The druid’s hands were glowing and Coran screamed a few more times. Keith saw as the open flesh closed under the druid’s shaky hands and how the bones were back in place. It didn’t took Keith long to realize that Lotor hitted Coran to a point that the druid needed the entire night to heal him.

It was, at the very least, revolting.

But it seemed that the druid was done, with an exhausted look on his face he called the guard to open the cell.

“You look awful,” the guard said when the door opened.

“I feel awful,” the druid replied. His exhaustion was visible. ”I almost lost him last night and it took everything I had to bring him back.”

“Do you think he’s going to last?”

They were already in the hall and Keith really needed to concentrate to listen to the reply.

“If the prince beat him like that again he’s going to die sooner than we though.”

And the door closed.

Keith blood froze for a moment and he opened the hatch, he didn’t know how much time they had, but he was sure it was not a lot. So they need to move, and fast.

Coran was passed out, so he didn’t notice Keith and Shiro untying him. With the altean free they moved him back to the tunnel and closed the hatch. Moving in the tunnels along was already a very difficult task, but moving while dragging an unconscious being was nearly impossible.  They were still very close to the cell and when Lotor arrived to an empty cell his scream invaded the tunnel, making the two turn completely still. That scream was so much different from Coran’s, because it wasn’t of pain (not even close of pain). It was of pure anger. So much anger that brought chills to theirs spines.

They also heard Lotor attack the guards and screams that followed. For a moment Keith felt very bad for them, they had done nothing wrong. But they weren’t the first ones to die for the cause, and surely would not going to be the lasts. Their deaths were another sacrifice that the prince was willing to bear.

To reach the empty wing was a struggle, it was cramped, way too hot and slippery. But they did it. It took them almost two hours, but they did it. They went back to the first room and Shiro activated the locater in his metal arm.

Almost instantly a small ship flew near the window. They hadn’t chosen that window for no reason (oh no), it was the furthest window from any sight spots on the patio and the streets. No one was looking at them. No one was even _thinking_ of looking at them.

So no one saw as they flew away with one of the last altean alive out of the planet. Shiro finally allowed himself a genuinely smile.

“I told you this plan would work,” Keith said going to the pilot seat.

“Just take us out of here.” The ship accelerated making Shiro almost fall in his face. “Show off…” They both laughed.

There was nothing to say about the trip, nothing really happened. For Shiro and Keith the space wasn’t as amazing as it once was (specially for Shiro), so they didn’t talk much. The two were just happy to be away from the Galra planet and to finally going to the place they felt safe.

That place was located in the middle of two black holes and a giant blue star, and they proudly called it the Blade of Marmora.

They were home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thanks for taking the time to read this!  
> I know it's a little slow, but I promise we'll start seeing other characters in the next chapter, just bear with me a little longer.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coran is okay and Lotor turns sad.  
> Sendak is there and so is Keith's mom!

When Coran awoke everything was way too bright and his eyes needed some time to adjust. He could hear voices above him, and a pair of hands (too small to be galra’s) touching him shoulders.

“Are you alright, Coran?” An unfamiliar voice asked him.

 “Where am I?” the altean asked, his eyes were almost adjusting.

“Don’t worry, you are among friends.” A lower voice replied.

Finally his eyes adjusted and Coran saw that he was lying in a metal bed, with five galras and one being with awful ears almost on top of him. A part of him really wanted to be scared, but the other was just done with all of it. So he sat up and, with a very sober expression, said:

“Please forgive me, but I heard that before.”

One of the tallest ones, who had a lighter shade of purple, red markings on his face and a _quiznaking_ huge scar on his eye, gave a step forward and opened his arms, saying:

“You are with the Blade of Marmora, you are save.”

“The Blade of Marmora, you say?” the altean wasn’t buying any of it. He got up and crossed his arms. “I thought you were just a rumor.”

Another one (this time with a tail) approached.

“We are real, altean!”

Coran couldn’t take more of that.

“You are a cruel joke!” He screamed. “You really want me to believe this? If it’s the heirs you want I can guarantee that you’ll never find them. Just kill me now and get this over with!”

The one with the ugly ears got between Coran and the galras.

“This is real, Coran. We want to help you.”

The only one Coran recognized (which was the proof this was a cruel joke) stepped forward. 

“What can we do for you to believe us?”

The altean didn’t even blink.

“You can explain me why one of the crowned princes is here! Why would he betray his father and his brother?! Why would he betray his nation?!”

Keith looked down and for a moment no one spoke a word. Coran was stil very defensive, but the others were keeping their eyes at the prince. The one with the ugly ears touched Keith on the shoulder and said with a very soft voice:

 “You don’t have to say anything, Keith.”

That was a lie.

They didn’t have any choice. That was the only way Coran was going to trust them, Keith could see it in the altean’s eyes. And they needed the his trust if they wanted to have a chance against Zarkon.

So with a deep breath Keith putted his arms up in a surrender stance.

“All right, Coran, I’ll tell you.” Coran relaxed a bit and Keith gestured to the metal bed. “Why don’t to go back to your sit?”

Coran didn’t want to, he was still very agitated and anxious. But there was something in the eyes of the prince that told him everything was going to be okay. Besides, he was still exhausted! So, very slowly, he sat back on the bed.

Keith approached him and the rest of the galra sat away from them. The only one who wasn’t sure to were to go was the weird being with the ugly ears, he kept looking between the prince and the rest of the galra, like he didn’t want to leave Keith. But eventually he went to thhe resto of the galra.

“So, Coran,” Keith started, “what do you know about Queen Zarna?”

Coran took a little bit of time to reply, after all that was a name he had not heard in a while.

“That was Zarkon’s wife, the only daughter of king Rellion. It was because of her that he was allowed by the galra council to become king and, eventually, the emperor. A _decapheebs_ ago she went missing. And she stood like that for three decapheebs, until a small galra legion found her and brought her back. But she was already sick and died shortly after.”

As Coran was saying all those things, Keith eyes got sadder. But the prince refused to let his emotion get the better of him. Coran did notice keith’s conflict, but chose to ignore. When Keith replied, his voice was way drier than before.

“It was not a sickness that killed her. It was Zarkon.” Keith refused to look at anyone, if he did he would never be able to finish. “But before I tell you about her death, I need to tell you about her life.”

Without asking he sat beside Coran on the bed. He couldn’t say if the altean was bothered by this proximity or not, since his eyes were still glued to the floor.

“When Zarkon was starting to get influence in the galra council, Zarna knew that her future was imminent. So she reunited her most trusted friends and together they found the Blade of Marmora.” Coran notice the one with the scar agreeing to Keith words almost proudly. “And when they got married she became the most valuable spy, sending to the Blade everything she could about Zarkon. But she wasn’t just a spy, she was also one of Zarkon commanders.”

Coran didn’t know, and the surprise on his face was visible. He looked at the others and, again, they didn’t seem surprised at all.  The prince’s still refused to look at anyone and the altean assumed there was yet much more to the story.

“In one of her missions to Zarkon she got stuck in a horrible energy storm, she couldn’t control her ship and didn’t know where the storm was taking her. But when it finally stopped she found herself in a estrange galaxy. She couldn’t recognize the constellations, didn’t know any of the planet, and her communicator couldn’t reach anyone… So she went to safest and nearest planet she could find, a little blue planet called Earth. And there she found a human male, who wasn’t scared of her… who just wanted to help… their friendship grew to love, and from their love I was born.” Keith finally looked at Coran and the altean couldn’t see any lies, just sadness. “We stood together like a family for three years, until that galra legion found Zarna. They killed the human almost instantly, you see? They thought he was a threat to their queen. And they wanted to kill me too, but Zarna didn’t let them. Instead they brought her back to Zarkon, with me in her arms.” Keith gave Coran a weak smiled. “I can only imagine Zarkon’s face when he looked at me the first time. A small and furless child, who looked so different and fragile… They would all know I wasn’t his.”

“So you didn’t always looked like this?” Coran asked with a sympathetic tone.

“No. I like to think that I looked like Shiro, he is from Earth too.” The prince pointed to the being with the ugly ears and it waved. “But the only thing that mattered was that I didn’t look like a galra, I didn’t look like Zarkon… and since my mother begged him to not kill me, he demanded Haggar to chance me. And she was given permission to experiment on me.” Coran noticed Keith’s hands getting tighter but didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to interrupt. “Zarna didn’t allowed it, but it was too late for her. She humiliated him, made him look weak. In the name of the old days he would let me live, but He wasn’t kind on her.”

“What did,” Coran hesitated. “What did he do to her?”

Keith looked at the floor again.

“He poisoned her. It was a slow and painful death, she wasn’t even herself when she finally died. She was just a shell: empty of soul and full of pain.” Keith then looked Coran right in the eyes, and the altean saw that it wasn’t just sadness in his eyes, there were also anger. “Zarkon is not my father, Coran, and Lotor is not my brother. The Galra is not my nation. And my cause it’s not theirs. You want to know why I fight against them? I fight to kill the son of a bitch who killed my mother”.

At first Coran didn’t have a response, he was so overwhelmed with all the new information that he simply didn’t know who to act. But Keith was looking at him again, and those yellow eyes he saw a determination that gave him the chills.

“I don’t think you would invent such an elaborated story just to fool me. So I believe you.”

Keith smiled in relive. The other galras didn’t show, but Coran could sense they were relived too. That made him smile: galras were so proud, even for the smallest of things.

“So can you help us to find the heirs?” the one named Shiro asked. “It’s for their own safety, Coran, we promise. There is no safest place on the galaxy.”

It was Coran’s turn to look at the ground.

“I wasn’t lying at Lotor when I said I didn’t know where they are. It was king’s idea. Before the meeting he felt that something was wrong and ordered Allura to take the castle away, just to be safe. She wasn’t allow to tell anyone where she was going. Not even the king himself.” Before anyone could suggest anything, the altean continued: “but if you let me use your computers I can reach her.”

“What do you mean?” Keith asked.

“The castle has an emergency frequency, I can send a message to her asking to bring the castle here.”

“Why are you only talking about Allura?” it was the scarred one’s turn to ask. “Is prince Lance not with her?”

Now Coran was just looking miserable.

“A few _quintents_ ago, prince Lance had a horrible fight with his father. I don’t really remember what was it about, but Lance was furious. So furious that he ran away from Altea, left his lion in the hangar and took off in an escaping pod. I don’t have idea where he is…”

The blades looked at each other, trying to figure it out how to deal with this new information. For as far as they know Lance could be caught at any second, and since he didn’t have his lion it would be impossible for him to escape any galra ship. It was Shiro who stepped forward.

“Let’s be calm about this. First let’s bring Allura to safety, and then we will look for Lance. Agree?

“Yes” the rest said.

“Antok, can you take Coran to the communication center?”

Antok, the big one with the tail, didn’t reply. But he did gesture to Coran to follow and that’s exactly what the altean did. Kolivan, Ulaz and Thace congratulated Keith for telling Coran the truth and were off to do their own duties. Ulaz petted Shiro on the head before leaving and, just like that, the prince and the human were alone. So Shiro took that opportunity to support Keith, even if it was just a little.

“You okay? I know you don’t like to talk about that.”

“Yeah,” Keith replied. “I just hope we can find both of them.”

“Me too.”

 

* * *

 

 

Sendak waked in the empty hallways for some time, he wasn’t really sure to where he was supposed to go so he just kept walking. He was going to find him… eventually. But it ended up with him finding Sendak.

Without a warning the commander was pushed against the wall and two arms were holding him there. Normally he would have ripped those arms right of, but they were attached to a very pleased prince.

“Bu!” Lotor said with a charming smile.

 “You’re an idiot.” Sendak was not having it.

“You know you like it.”

Lotor’s arms moved from Sendak shoulders to his face, but the commander moved away.

“Now that I’ve found you, where’s your brother?”

Lotor’s smile dropped and he crossed his arms.

“Why do you want to know about my brother?”

“Your father asked for him this morning,” Sendak replied with a grin. “I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

“Oh…” Lotor smiled again, softer this time. “We are having a race.”

“A race?”

“Yes. To see who can find the heirs first.”

For some reason that made Sendak laugh, and unconsciously he stepped closer to the prince.

“What does the winner get?”

Lotor noticed the proximity and didn’t waste any time putting his arms around Sendak's waist. The commander didn’t seem to notice.

“If Keith wins he gets whatever he wants. Like that’s gonna happen.” Both laughed. “And when I win, I’ll finally get to play with Keith’s dearest pet.”

That got Sendak’s attention.

“Oh really?” Lotor nodded. “What some help with that?”

“There’s no need. Knowing Keith, he’s probably out in space looking blindly for them right now.”

 It was Sendak turn to put his arms around Lotor.

“What’s your plan?”

 “I know every rumor in the universe, dear. Eventually one of them will be true.”

“There’s one already?”

“Maybe.” Again Lotor moved his hands to Sendak's face, and this time the commander didn’t move away. “One about Arus. But is way too far to send a troop without being sure.” He touched Sendak’s lips with the tips of his claws. “We just need to be patient.”

Sendak, without a word, closed his eyes and leaned to the prince, resting his forehead on Lotor’s. Both of them were quiet and very much relaxed, just taking in the peace of the moment. They didn’t get a lot of times for this, to just stay together and enjoy each other’s company, and it was the best sensation in the world.

Until Sendak’s communicator biped, warning him it was time to go. The moment was gone.

Slowly, he took Lotor’s hands off of him and the prince didn’t even try to hide the fact he wasn’t ready to leave.

“We need to stop doing this,” Sendak said still holding the prince’s hands, keeping them close to his chest.

“I don’t want to,” Lotor replied looking down.

“I know.” Sendak kissed his hands and said in a very soft tone “But that’s something we must do.”

Lotor didn’t reply, he just leaned in and kissed Sendak very lightly on the lips.

There was a lot to say about the oldest prince, for example: on how good he was as a hunter or how much he liked torturing and experimenting in the pain of others. In what a curious, charming and dangerous being he turned out to be… The list went on, after all Lotor was one of the most curious and fierce figures in the Galra Empire.

But no one knew how much the prince cared for Sendak (or were ever going too). The commander was probably the only being Lotor could never hurt. And it was mutual: Sendak would never hurt Lotor, not in a million years.

But they were not meant to be. Especially now that Zarkon had ordered Sendak to wed one of the daughters of the few willing allies they had: the young princess on the planet Rutos, a ruthless place made of rock and lava. Half way across the galaxy…

They kissed again, slower and deeper this time, making the most of the little time they had. But Sendak’s communicator biped again ad they were forced to return to reality. Sendak kissed Lotor’s forehead and, without saying a word, walked away. Lotor crossed his arms and refused to look in the commander’s direction.

 

* * *

 

 

 It took some time to Coran finally establish a communication line with the altean Castle. But when he did, Allura replied almost right away. It pained his poor little old heart to imagine her all alone in that big castle, just waiting for a sign of something. Of someone.

She wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

He sent her a little explanation and the coordinates. She didn’t seem so secure about it, but Coran couldn’t blame her, he still couldn’t believe it himself!

But if there was something Allura had learned in her years of life was that Coran would never put her in any dangerous situation. Never ever! So in a few minutes de altean castle teleduved itself right on front of their base ad it landed on top of them. Coran was the first waiting for her with open arms.

And for the firsts time in _quintents_ both Allura and Coran felt truly save.

“Princess Allura,” Kolivan said approaching them, “welcome to the Blade of Marmora.”

“There is no time to a welcoming, sir.” She replied in a serious tone, looking the leader in the eyes. “We need to find my brother.”

Surprisingly, that made Kolivan smile (Keith and Shiro thought they were hallucinating for a moment there).

“I though you would never ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found out that I’m the only one shipping Lotor and Sendak, and I’ll not rest until I take someone with me. I’m mean it!  
> And I’m also making fanart, because why the hell not? So if you are interested please give it a look: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nskellingtonme  
> As always, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you’re enjoying it. See you in chapter 5!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hide and seek with Lance (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) it's been awhile since I posted a new chapter but in my defense I was almost having a heart attack because of colege and all the bloody projects.  
> I didn't have enought time to properly write and when I did get some, it was a little tough because the new chapter was getting quite long. In fact it was so long that I decided to divide it in two. I really didn't want to do this, but in the end it was for the best.  
> And I'll say more: english is hard... And very discouraging....  
> But I'll keep going.

The first thing Keith noticed about Allura was that she was very tall, not just in height, but also in attitude. She walked in the base with such elegance that common beings would never achieve, and the broken pride in her eyes was the perfect cover for the actual worry she was in.

But soon that worry manifested itself when Thace asked her where Prince Lance could be. 

“With all due respect, sir,” The princess said with a very sober expression, “but if I knew where my brother is I wouldn’t waste my time coming here.”

“No one knows Lance better than you, princess,” Kolivan said stepping forward. “I know this seems pointless, but we need you to give us a chance. Please?”

Coran touched her in the shoulder and they exchanged a look, she then looked down and replied: “Alright…”

“Now, for what we know about your brother, he doesn’t seem the type of being that would like to be alone-”

“That’s an understatement,” Coran and Allura said at the same time.

“Can you think of a friend he would go to?”

The princess exhaled in frustration, “Lance has friends in every corner of the galaxy! He was always very sociable.”

It was Shiro’s turn to step forward and say: “This would be a special friend. Someone he talks constantly.”

It took her a while but then she answered with a alert tone:

“Well, I can think of two. There is a small olkari named Pidge, Lance met her last decapheeb and they linked almost right away. And there’s the balmerian Hunk, they met when they were very young, and were always really close. But Lance hasn’t talk about him in vargas…”

Shiro smiled. “It’s a start. Is there a way to reach Pidge?”

“She built a special communicator for Lance, so they could talk at any time regardless of the distance. But it’s inside the Blue Lion and the only one who can get inside is Lance.”

“Well…” Keith said almost unconsciously. “that doesn’t help at all.”

Allura sent him a mean look, but before things got out of hand Kolivan stood in front of the alteans and said:

“But it is a start. We’ll go search on both planets.”

Coran held Allura closer and said: “It will be easier now that we have the castle. Allura can open the portals for us.”

They all seemed to agree and again Kolivan stepped forward, now talking to all in the room.

“We need a small team to get the prince, with non-threatening beings that will not scare him-“

“I volunteer, sir,” Coran said almost instantly raising his hand. “Lance won’t trust in anyone except me and the princess.”

Kolivan wasn’t at all bothered by the second interruption, on the contrary, he agreed with the altean.

“Shiro,” The leader called. “Since you are the closest being of an altean we have, you will accompany Coran. If we are lucky you won’t scare the boy.”

“Yes, sir,” the human replied.

It seemed that he wanted to say something more, but Keith got in the way.

“I’m going too.”

“Keith…” Kolivan gave him a look, but the prince didn’t back down.

“Come on, sir,” Antok said relying his elbow on Keith's head. “Keith is so tiny that the prince won’t even consider him a treat.”

The prince growled, which made all the members of the blade laugh. Allura and Coran observed that moment with alien eyes (no pun intended), after all it felt like ages since they were this relaxed. Allura herself truly believed she would never laugh, never tease or play a simple game ever again. It felt like that part of her died with Altea.

So she and Coran patiently waited for the laughter to end.

 

* * *

 

 

“What do you mean ‘it moved’?!” Lotor roared.

The poor guard who was in charge of delivering the message couldn’t stop shaking, he also couldn’t look the eldest prince in the eyes and it took all he had to repeat the message.

“T-they said the castle d-d-disappeared from A-arus,” he then added in a rushed tone: “my prince.”

Lotor held the guard’s face and made him look in his eyes.

“And how is that possible?” He asked growling.

The guard swallowed. “W-we don’t know.”

It took Lotor a few ticks but then he let the guard go and turned to face the monitors. He still couldn’t believe it.

“So the information we got about Allura being on Arus was real,” he said to himself. “But now that we know the information is real it’s useless because the tartaring castle isn’t there anymore.” He turned to the guard and gave him a very cold smile. “Do you know what that means?”

“S-sir?”

“IT MEANS WE HAVE NOTHING!” He slapped the guard and the galra went flying to the next wall. “LEAVE ME!”

The poor guard limped out of the room.

But as soon as the door closed it opened again, the prince was facing the monitors so he didn’t see who entered the room. Anyways, he couldn’t care less to who it was. He just wanted to be left alone, so he could think on what to do next.

“Something’s wrong, my son?” Zarkon said right behind him, Haggar was not very far behind. But Lotor didn’t look at her.

Lotor’s heart skipped a beat and he turned to his father, already bowing with his eyes glued on the ground.

“Just a small delay, my father.”

“’A small delay’ you say,” the emperor said like he was tasting the words. From the face he made they didn’t taste very good. “I heard you lost the altean castle. You call that a small delay?”

“I can still find them-“ Zarkon interrupted him raising his hand, the words on Lotor’s mouth died almost instantly.

“No you can’t. Because you weren’t even looking.”

 “Pardon me, my lord,” Lotor said trying to hide the anger in his voice. “But I was.”

That made the emperor laugh.

“Hearing gossips around the galaxies is not looking. Lurking in the hallways with Sendak is even less.”

Lotor was shocked and wasn’t able to respond. But Zarkon wasn’t waiting for an explanation.

“At least Keith is out there actually looking, even though it’s useless by now. And it’s all because of your incompetence.” That made Lotor look at his father, the defiance burned in the yellow of his eyes, but it was ignore by Zarkon. “After all it was you who let Coran escape. And it’s pretty obvious that he already reached the heirs and warned them. And the castle has a teleduv portal, which means that will be impossible to catch them by surprise. Now,” he bent down to be on same level as his son. Lotor was shorter by mere inches, but that action still made him feel small. “what’s the only possible way for us to capture them?”

Lotor wanted to stay in silence, he didn’t trust his own voice, but he also knew Zarkon wouldn’t be satisfied without an verbal answer.

“We wait for them to come to us,” the prince chewed the words, he absolutely hated being treated like a stupid child.

“And why would they do that?”

“Because we have their lions.”

“Exactly.” Zarkon touched a few things in the monitor and the image of the red lion appeared. “I am leaving the red lion here in the capital, so you need to keep it safe. Understood?”

“…yes, father,” the prince replied refusing to look at him.

“I will be taking Sendak to his betrothed.” If Zarkon noticed how stiff Lotor got, he didn’t show. “And I’m leaving you in charge, so don’t disappoint me.”

And he added before leaving the room: ”Call your brother back, I want him to be in charge of the Green Lion security.”

“As my emperor commands.” Lotor replied in a harsh tone.

 

* * *

 

 

It had been a while since Coran visited Olkarion, but he could still remember the shine of the cities and how fascinating their technology was, there was always something to see. So the shock he felt when they arrived to a ruined capital was way more that he could take. Everything was destroyed. The buildings were turned in to dust, the streets were filled with metal parts and the Galra flag was standing on top of it all. Coran knew the Olkari were engineers, brilliant engineers, but they were not fighters.  So he could only imagine the massacre.

“If the prince is here,” Keith said landing the small pod on the forest near the capital, “we came too late.”

“We need to find Pidge,” Coran replied trying to hide his concern (and failing miserably).

The altean sent a signal in what it used to be Pidge’s line, if it still was Coran couldn’t really say. Their original plan was to visit the olkari in her home, but it was too dangerous to do that on the current circumstances. That signal was their only hope now.

And, like a light from heaven, it came a response.

“She is near us,” Coran said with shaking hands.

Shiro was the first to exist the pod and he made sure it was all clear so Coran and Keith could join him. Coran wore a long hood while Keith was using his Blade of Marmora mask, the prince was in a very dangerous situation right now and under no circumstance he could blew his cover. Not even for the altean royalty.

If things looked bad inside the pod, it were way worse outside. It was really warm and the air was dry, not to mention the smell of ash that was everywhere.

“Coran?” a small voice called in the threes.

They turned and there she was, a small olkari with big glasses and a broken smile, who was trying to hide her tears.

“Pidge,” the altean replied opening his arms.

She ran to him and in a blink they were hugging each other. Shiro and Keith waited.

“They took them, Coran,” she said in a weak and defeated tone. “They took all of them.”

“Who?”

“All the Masters Engineers…” she started crying. “My father and my brother.”

 “Oh Pidge.” Coran held her tighter.

“What about Prince Lance?” Keith asked stepping forward.

Pidge was about to respond but the words died in her mouth as soon as she looked at Keith, it didn’t matter if he was wearing a mask. Almost every creature in the universe could recognize a galra when they saw one, and the olkari didn’t have any doubt.

“Coran…”

“It’s alright Pidge,” the altean said patting her head. “Keith won’t hurt you.”

“But he is…”

“It a very long story, little one.” Coran was just about to explain but Shiro and Keith gave him a look, changing his mind. “But we don’t have the time, where is Lance?”

For a moment it didn’t seemed like Pidge was going to answer, but after a few comforting pats by Coran she responded in a rushed tone, so just Coran was able to hear.

“He hasn’t spoke to me in vargas. Is he okay?”

“We can’t find him,” Coran replied with a broken voice. “But we won’t stop looking.”

“Can you take me with you?” Coran gave her a sad smile. “I need to find my family.”

“Sorry kid,” Keith said separating Coran from Pidge. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Please?” she asked to Coran, ignoring Keith completely. “I can help.”

Keith was already pushing the altean inside the pod and it was up to Shiro to talk to Pidge.

“I’m sorry, Pidge,” Shiro said kneeling down to by on same level as her. “But it’s too dangerous. But I promise we will find your family and bring them back to you. Okay?”

Shiro was giving her a kind smile, but the olkari didn’t buy any of it and with a hard kick on his leg she disappeared. His eyes were still watering when he came back to the pod and Keith gave him a funny look.

“Don’t even say it,” the human warned while looking at his wounded leg.

“We could have helped her,” Coran said in a dry tone. “She’s too small for that mess out there and we could have kept her save.”

“Coran,” Keith called in a serious tone and waited for the altean to look at him. “Our only priority right now it’s to find the prince, because with him we have a real chance of defeating Zarkon. And when we do that, everyone, even her, will be saved.”

The altean didn’t back down.

 “It won’t matter if she dies tomorrow.”

And with that response Coran turned to the monitor and called Allura, Shiro gave the prince a look, a hard one, and Keith looked away.

It didn’t pleased him to ignore the ones in need, it actually made him feel quite guilty, but he couldn’t help everyone either. It was just impossible. So for a long time Keith tried to focus on the things he could actually do. Like find the missing prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested I have an idea on how Olkari Pidge would look right here (please check it out if you have the time):http://nskellingtonme.tumblr.com/post/158311708285/in-the-fic-im-working-on-the-only-human-in-the  
> As always thank you for reading it and I hope to see you all in the next chapter ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hide and seek with Lance (part 2)

They left Olkarion with a very heavy heart, and Coran didn’t look at Keith when they reached the portal. That olkari haunted Keith’s mind but it didn’t matter anymore, they were going to a Balmera now. And Pidge was pushed away.

To good side of reaching the Balmera was that there were no galras on sight, so they didn’t have to hide. The bad side was that to find Hunk and (hopefully) Lance they needed to go below the surface… and Shiro hated it. It made him remember of his days in the gladiator arena, which he desperately wanted to forget.

“Are you okay Shiro?” Keith asked after noticing the human’s discomfort.

It took Shiro a few ticks to reply: “I’m fine.”

And with that Keith took the pod inside the tunnels underground and once they landed Coran practically jumped out of it. Keith and Shiro didn’t comment, but both of them knew that the alten was angry. Keith couldn’t really blame him, Coran didn’t even get to say goodbye because of the young prince. And all the galra could do now was feeling sorry, he never thought things through, and most of the time he regretted this. That’s why Shiro was always around, but not even Shiro could hold Keith back all the time.

The prince’s train of thought was interrupted by a giant being, a balmeran. It was male and it seemed quite old. Was that the famous Hunk?

“Hello, Mister Hank,” Coran said with a genuine smile. “Could you take us to your son? It’s quite important.”

Hank grunted and gave Coran a strong pad on the shoulder, if it hurt the altean hided it pretty well. The giant took them through the tunnels and finally they reached a big room entirely made of stone, in there other balmerans were working. All of them looked to the visitors and Coran waved.

“Hunk?” He called. “Where are you?”

“Here!” a strong voice replied.

Another giant balmeran approached  them with open arms and pulled Coran into a major bear hug.

“Coran! It’s so good to see you again!”

Hunk was just one or two inches smaller than his father, and certainly way more talkative and friendly. He recived Coran like he was an old friend and almost broke his ribs in that hug. Then, before the altean could say anything, he turned to Shiro and it was the human’s turn to be crushed.

“Hello, new friend! Was your name?” Hunk asked with a cheerful smile.

“That’s Shiro,” Coran replied since Shiro couldn’t really breath. “And that over there is Keith.”

“Keith!” Hunk left Shiro alone and turned to Keith, ready to hug him too. But as soon he saw his face the balmeran’s arms closed and he screamed. “Coran, do you know what he is?”

Keith looked away, he wasn’t expecting to be hugged, but the rejection still hurted a bit. Coran noticed that and quickly replied:

“Yes, I know. But he’s different, Hunk. He’s going to help us.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

The balmeran smiled and before Keith could process what was happening he got crushed in the strongest hug of his live.

“Hello little galra!”

Keith’s ears bended back and it took all he had to not growl, but beside them Shiro was almost crying with laughter. Coran also seemed very amused, but took pity in the galra and turned back to Hunk.

“Do you know where Lance is?” the altean asked while releasing Keith from the balmeran arms.

Hunk stoped smiling and replied:

“Well, he was here.” His voice was covered with grief, he looked down and kept talking. “But when we heard the news about Altea he flew away…”

All three of them groaned, Keith was frustraded, Shiro was anxious and Coran was defeated. But before they could lose all hope, a small (yet determined) voice invaded the room.

“I can help.”

They turned and there was Pidge, the little olkari, on all her glory. Coran ran to hug her in relief and Keith stood there speechless.

“How in the _tarta_ she got here?” he asked Shiro.

“Don’t look at me,” The human replied raising his hands.

“I’ll explain that later,” she said when Coran let her go, she was about to say something else but Hunk lifted her like she was a rag doll.

“Pidge!” he greeted with a noticeable happier tone.

“Hunk, let me go!”

He held her for a couple more ticks, waiting for her to actually hug him back, even if not the same enthusiasm. But once that was done all eyes were turned to Pidge, who was safe in the ground once more.

“I can help you find Lance,” she said it like it was the easiest thing in the universe.

Keith wasn’t buying it.

“How do you plan on doing that?” he took that opportunity to tower over her, something that he couldn’t do as often as he wished. “And since we’re on the subject, what do you want in return?”

“You will let me stay with you.” It wasn’t a request anymore, Keith and the others could tell just by looking in her eyes. “I’m not going back to Olkarion without my family.”

Keith was done.

He just wanted to find that stupid prince, so they could get the stupid robots and could use the stupid Voltron and save the stupid universe. Was that too much to ask?! It was NOT in his plans to be bossed around by a little alien who clearly knew way more than him. But, now that it was happening, what more could he do?

 “Fine,” he growled.

Her eyes sparkled with victory and she left the cave bringing Coran, Keith, Shiro and Hunk (who was worried sick about Lance) with her. They reached the pod and Shiro needed to hold Keith’s shoulder to calm the prince as the olkari sat on the pilot seat.

“Hunk,” she called not looking away from the monitors. “Lance left in an altean pod, right?”

“Yes, I think,” he replied a little insecure. “It’s the white one, right?”

“Yes.” Coran said with a sympathetic smile.

“And this is the line you are using to communicate with Allura?” She asked typing away.

Before any of them could replied a beep invaded the pod and all eyes turned to the monitor. There was a location. _Lance’s_ location. Jaws literally dropped.

“How…?”

“The alteans have a unique communication signature,” she started not even turning. “that is trackable as long as you have an starting point. My starting point is the line of communication you are using to reach the castle, and all I had to do was to look for another peak using that same signature.”

“But then that means…” Coran said more for himself than for the others.

“He’s trying to reach the castle.” Pidge completed.

“He won’t be able to do that.” Coran continued. “The castle is located in an area that is almost entirely blocked from any kind of communication.”

“What area would that be?” She asked, for the first time actually looking at Coran. Her curiosity was burning in her eyes.

“You’ll see.” Keith barged in lifting her from his chair. “But now we really need to get the prince.”

Only when the Balmera was nothing more than a little ball among the stars they heard:

“This is so exciting!”

All eyes turned and Keith’s blood actually froze for a tick. They completely forgot to leave Hunk! And now the big balmeran was in a corner, looking completed relaxed and smiling while looking at the window. His eyes sparkling with amaze, never ever seeing something so beautiful as the space itself.

“What do we do?” Shiro asked crossing his arms, not very alarm by the new addiction.

Keith honestly didn’t have time for that, so he just growled. He honestly couldn’t understand how he was the only one who was practically losing it. Not that the pod was filled with laughter, but everyone was way calmer than him.

“Just one more thing,” Pidge said while squeezing herself between Keith and the monitors.

The prince almost bit her.

“What now?” He asked baring his teeth.

“Lance may not be able to reach the castle,” she replied not looking at him. “But we can reach him.”

“We can talk to him!” Coran said practically jumping with happiness. “Pidge, you are a genius!”

She smiled at the altean, but before she could anything to communicate with Lance the monitor started to glow. Pidge’s hands flew away from the screen and Keith pushed her away, sending her in Coran’s direction. The altean took her and Hunk to the extreme end of the pod, were they couldn’t be seen and made them a sign to stay quiet.

Shiro gave them a fast look and nodded. Keith took a depth breath and touched the screen, answering the call, Lotor’s face invaded the monitors. And if the news were as bad as the older prince’s face, Keith was (by a lack of a better word) fucked.

“Brother,” Keith started, his face was blank but his hands were shaking. Shiro putted a hand on his shoulder, but it didn’t help much.

“Keith, were are you?” Lotor asked practically growling.

“Looking for the missing heirs,” Keith then looked at Lotor and gave him a fake smile. “And you?”

“Father is calling you back,” the older prince said ignoring the question. “so come back home already.”

“I can’t-“

“And why is that?”

Keith and Shiro exchanged a look and the prince replied fast:

“Shiro and I were caught by a worm hole, we were send to the other end of the galaxy,” Lotor wasn’t buying it, but Keith was not letting go. “It will take us a few quintents to go back.”

“…how many quintets?”

“Twenty? Maybe more.”

Lotor took a few thicks just looking at his brother’s face, but in the end the older prince just wickedly smiled.

“It’s a shame you’re so far away, dear brother,” Lotor said with a fake tone. “Father won’t be very happy with you.”

“Why is him asking for me anyway?”

“Remember my friend?” Shiro looked back and saw Coran getting really pale. Keith only nodded. “Well he wasn’t that much useful and in the end. He ran away.”

“As all your friends normally do.” Keith said crossing his arms, his hands were still a little bit shaking.

“But this one was a very important friend. He ruined our bet.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” It was Keith’s turn to use a fake tone. “But don’t worry, brother, I will still find the heirs for you.”

“Your orders are to come back.”

“And I will.” Keith moved to touch the screen and quickly added: “after I find the heirs.”

“Keith!-“ the screen went black.

For a moment the pod was filled with silence, but Shiro quickly broke it.

“You know he is going to pretty angry at you when we come back, right?”

Keith was still looking at the screen like he forgot how to blink.

“Even if it wasn’t worth it,” he replied leaning into the chair. “he is always angry when I come back.”

“Are you guys okay?” Shiro asked looking back. “Coran?”

“We are fine, Shiro.” The altean replied. “Thank you.”

“Lotor sounds like a prick.” Pidge said returning to the monitor.

Keith gave her a very quick look and fought back a smile. Maybe the olkari wasn’t as bad as he tough…

“Even more than Keith, I mean,” she completed and Keith growled at her.

She was as bad as a plague!

“Never mind that,” Shiro said smiling. “Can we still reach Lance?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Keith replied. “We’re here.”

Lance’s location was lonely asteroid that was caught in the gravity field of one of the smallest planets had ever seen. The asteroid itself wasn’t that big either, and they spotted the white altean pod without difficulties. Beside Keith, Coran, Hunk and even Pidge couldn’t take their eyes away from the vessel, as if it would disappear if they blinked.

That made Keith and Shiro realize how important the altean prince actually was. After all it wasn’t every day that they could see such worry in someone’s eyes. Keith got particularly curious to meet the famous Lance and see with his own eyes if the prince was actually that special.

The galra pod landed and Coran jumped out again, this time in eagerness to find his prince.

“You stay here,” Shiro said to Pidge and Hunk. Keith was also leaving the pod, but Shiro held his arm. “You too Keith.”

“Say what?” the galra must have heard wrong.

“Lance is a full trained and armed paladin,” Shiro replied. “And he doesn’t know you are one of the good guys. So, please, at least stay close to the pod. Alright?”

Keith crossed his arms and swallowed a growl. He didn’t like to growl at Shiro simply for the fact that it made him feel like a small and stubborn child. He also didn’t like to be told what to do.

“Alright?” Shiro asked again, this time with a more and rare authoritarian tone of voice.

“…fine.”

“We’ll be right back,” Shiro said with a small smile and followed Coran.

Ignoring the looks he was getting from Pidge and Hunk, Keith exited the pod and closed the door on their faces. Shiro told him it was okay to be near the pod so that’s what he was going to do.

Leaned against the hard and cold metal the galra prince crossed his arms. The asteroid wasn’t as small as it seemed from space and it was one of the quietest places Keith had ever seen. The rock was light grey and there was dust everywhere, looking more like a dead desert than a floating rock. He closed his eyes, actually relaxing from the absolute silence. But that marvelous silence was instantly broken by an angry (and quite smoothing) voice:

“Don’t move.”

Keith opened his eyes with a frown. There he was: an tall and tanned figure, wearing the armor of a blue paladin. His eyes were in a unique and clear shade of blue, just as the markings on his cheeks and neck. His hair was almost like Princess Alura’s, long and silver, with a few charming curves at the end. He was holding a species of mechanical bow and pointing directly at Keith an arrow made of pure energy. By the looks of it, Prince Lance was truly impressive.

“It’s okay,” Keith said raising his arms.

“Shut up,” Lance replied with a sour expression. “It’s hard for me to believe that Zarkon, that monster, would send you to kill me.”

Maybe it was for the tone Lance was using or for the fact that that damn arrow was still pointed at him, but Keith was starting to get angry.

“Do you even know me?” he asked trying not to growl (it wasn’t going to help).

“Of course I know you, crowned Prince Keith,” Lance said in a harsh tone. “The destiny is truly cruel to reunite us like this.”

The anger evaporated and Keith asked quite confused: “We met before?”

That seemed to evaporate Lance’s anger as well and the altean prince lowered the bow with an insulted expression.

“Who can you not remember me? We are the rival princes, you know! Lance and Keith neck an neck!”

By Keith’s expression he had no idea what Lance was talking about. That made Lance growl with frustration and the arrow was back up.

“It doesn’t matter now anyway,” the altean prince said. “You’ll never get me alive.”

“Lance!” Coran screamed behind him.

Lance’s face got blank and he slowly turned to Coran, the older altean was running in their direction with open arms and, almost in slow motion, Lance dropped the bow and started running too.

Coran locked Lance in his version of a bear hug and, once the prince was save in his arms, both started crying.

“I was so worried about you!” Coran said making the hug tighter.

“I thought you were dead!” Lance replied hiding his tears in Coran’s shoulder.

It was a very sweet moment of pure relief which made Keith feel incredibly uncomfortable. That was not something he was used to and suddenly he felt like he was intruding. He went back inside the pod and while he was stepping in, Pidge and Hunk stepped out both eager to hug Lance.

Shiro finally caught up with Coran and smiled on the moment he saw the prince. The first part of their mission was complete.

 

* * *

 

 

“So...” Lance started looking at everyone. They were all sitting outside the galra pod and Coran had just finished explaining everything to the prince. “Let’s see if I got everything right: Keith is a spy from the Blade of Marmora, a rebel galra group, which I’ve been told ever since I was an infant, it didn’t really existed and it was just a tale they invented to worry Zarkon. They need me, my sister and our lions to form Voltron and destroy the galra empire, which I was also told ever since I was an infant, it would never happen. That’s it?”

“Pretty much.” Coran replied with the widest smile ever.

“How in the _quisnak_ you got here, Pidge?” the prince asked looking at the small olkari.

“I snuck in when Shiro wasn’t looking,” she said like it was the simplest thing in the word.

She also completely ignored the sour look Shiro gave her. His leg was still sore.

“Oh, that reminds me.” Lance stared at Shiro and the human raised his hands, not knowing exactly what to do. The prince ignored him and grabbed his ears frowning. “What are you? You look like us, but your ears are horrible.”

“I’m an earthling, your highness.”  

“An earthling…” Lance repeated like he was tasting the words.

“Keith is also from Earth,” Coran added and it didn’t seem to impress the prince.

 “We need to go,” Keith said in a rasher tone than intended. He couldn’t really explain but the attitude from the altean prince was making him quite angry.

“Keith is right,” Coran said already getting up. “It’s not safe out here. And besides, my prince, your sister is waiting for you.”

Lance, who was still playing with Shiro’s ears, instantly released the human and got on his feet. He was giving the biggest smile Keith had ever seen and just said: “Let’s go then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is finally here, I'm so happy! I was so worried about not getting his personality right, but I think it will turn out just fine. He's not entirely like the others, who will have to take their time to build themselfs, but he's also one of the hardest characters to write about (in my humble opinion)  
> And did you seriously think I would let Pidge to stay out of the story?  
> I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as me and I'll see you in the next chapter :)  
> PS: I made one small edit because that last part goes way better with this chapter.  
> PS 2: And I very sorry about the grammar mistakes, I really try to fix everything, but English is still very hard...


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is exhausted, Allura is relieved and Lance is not as happy as he seems...

If Keith once thought Lance was impressive, he took all back now. It didn’t matter how the altean prince looked, the only thing that mattered was that he would never shup up! Like never! From the moment he stepped inside the galra pod, all Keith could hear was his voice.

“You are not scared, are you Hunk?”

“Not really, not yet at least.“

“It’s going to be so fun! I can show you my castle – you never visited me before – Oh! You know what we can do?! We can be roommates! We are not going to invite Pidge though, she would probably kill us in our sleep.”

“Damn right I would.”

“She’s just jealous Hunk. You know what else? We are going to have a pajama party and will not invite her… Nor Keith.”

The galra growled trying to keep his eyes on the monitors, but even that was becoming way to hard. Keith didn’t know why Lance was giving that attitude, but he didn’t really care (they were on a mission after all). But he also couldn’t hide his gratitude to whoever invented the teleduv, making their return way faster.

They reached the Blade hiding place and everyone (even the obnoxious altean prince) stood in silence. Keith and Shiro couldn’t blame them, even to that day the mere sight of the blue star trapped between the black holes was enough to take their breath away.

“It’s amazing!” Pidge said squeaking herself in the front, completely blocking Keith’s vision. “Just inside a black hole the temperature is one millionth of a degree above absolute zero! But, just outside of that, it’s hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius!  Here exactly is the base?”

“In between the three,” Shiro replied with a small smile.

“The perfect defensive position!” Her eyes were practically sparkling. “I’ll admit: I’m very impressed.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Keith said without emotion and shoved her away.

The galra was exhausted and felt completely drained, never since he became a spy he felt that tired. And it was all because of those crazy and loud beings crowding his pod! Keith knew they needed them for stupid stuff like saving the universe, but right now he just wanted to rest in his quiet chamber.

“Relax,” Shiro said touching his shoulder for the millionth time that day. How many times would he have exploded if it wasn’t for Shiro calming gesture? Keith didn’t even want to think about it. “We are almost there.”

And fair enough, the pod soon reached the base and Keith was free.

Everyone exited the pod and as soon as Lance landed a foot outside the pod Allura ran to him. They locked each other in a tight hug, like they would never ever let go.

Now that they were together, Ketih could notice a few things about the siblings: first, they were very much alike in appearance, but Lance was a few inches taller while Allura was a shade darker. Their hair wasn’t as similar as Keith firstly thought, for the fact that Allura’s was fuller and whiter, not to mention longer. Lance’s hair was not even close in length (but it was still pretty long for normal standards) and it had a different kind of white, almost a shining silver. Second: they cared a lot about each other, not just for the fact that they were hugging and crying, but it was something about the way Allura was holding her brother.

In that hug Keith could see a care and love most siblings didn’t really have. It was a pure and mourning kind of love, which only showed on beings that had no one else. Allura held her brother like that because he was the last family she had left, and she would die before losing him too. That was a kind of love Keith could understand (since he had no real family), but never experienced before. Not even with Shiro, the closest thing to a family he had, and even less with Lotor, who was supposed to be his brother.

“I’m sorry, Lura,” Lance said hiding his face in her shoulder.

“I was so worried about you,” she held him tighter, which Keith thought it was impossible, but she managed it.

She then looked up with the intention to thank Keith and Shiro, but Hunk and Pidge caught her eye before she could say anything.

“Lance?” she called making a confused face at them.

“Yes?” he was still hiding his face into her shoulder.

“What are Pidge and Hunk doing here?” her tone of voice was supposed to be serious, but she was so happy to see their familiar faces that she was almost laughing (almost).

Lance laughed too and Coran took a step forward.

“It’s quite a long story, princess,” he said with a light smile.

“In that case it’ll have to wait.”

She let Lance go and turned to Kolivan, who was waiting respectfully in the back, the other members were even further.

“If that’s alright, sir, I will take my brother to rest now,” She said in a gentle tone.

“Of course,” Kolivan replied. “You two need some time to adjust, so as our new friends,” he gave a look to Hunk and Pidge and completed: “We’ll talk about our plan tomorrow.”

“I appreciate that.”

She gestured to Coran and the older altean took Pidge and Hunk inside the castle, practically pulling Hunk along, since the balmeran couldn’t stop looking around with pure curiosity. Lance was just about to follow when he saw Allura going into Keith and Shiro’s direction. She touched both on their shoulders and pulled them for a hug.

“Thank you for bringing Lance to me,” she said trying to hold back her tears. “This act of kindness will not be forgotten.”

“Don’t mention it, your highness,” Shiro replied while trying to ignore the fact that he was blushing pretty hard.

Keith would make fun of him if it wasn’t for the fact he was blushing pretty hard too.

“I suppose my sister is right,” Lance said approaching them.

Allura let them go and Lance took a step closer, his eyes were glued on the floor and he looked very shy, with a light blush on his cheeks. Something that Keith couldn’t even imagine it was possible.

“Thank you,” the altean prince said, his eyes were still down. “If it wasn’t for you I would still be lost.”

“Somehow,” Keith replied crossing his arms. “I find that hard to believe.”

The blush on Lance cheeks got brighter and Allura (taking pity on her poor brother) took his hand and started to walk away. But before they were gone Lance finally looked up and met Keith's eyes, both of them were still blushing and all that Lance could do was wave. Keith didn’t really know what to do, so he let Shiro take the lead and the human waved back.

Kolivan approached them as soon as the heirs left, Thace, Ulaz and Antok were right behind them.

“Well done you two,” the leader said looking down at them, his eyes showed a rare shine of kindness.

“Why the red faces?” Antok asked practically laughing.

That snapped Keith back to the reality.

“Shut up!” he said covering his face.

Antok and Ulaz laughed harder and Thace patted the little galra’s head.

“Don’t mind them, Keith,” he said with a gentle tone. “But do explain why there were more guest than the intended.”

“It’s like what Coran said,” Shiro replied before Keith got angry again with just the memory of it. “It’s a long story.”

“Then I’ll hear it over supper,” Kolivan replied already walking away. “And Antok, leave the boy alone. He’s already embarrassed enough as it is.”

 “Hey!”

This time not even Thace or even Shiro could hold the laughter, but before Keith could move to kick all their asses, he remembered something very serious.

“Sir?” He called and Kolivan, who was almost at the door, looked at him. “Lotor called. Apparently they are no longer after the heirs.”

Kolivan took a moment to think about it and in the end he only replied:

“That changes things.” 

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Allura asked Lance before he entered his room. “You don’t have to be alone, you know…”

“I’m fine,” he replied in a weak tone. All that laughter and cheeriness for before were long gone. “I’m just a little tired.”

“Alright then.” Allura could see right through him, but decided to leave him alone. “You know where to find me.”

And with a last hug she left.

Lance finally looked inside his room and his heart broke. It was all the same, like nothing had ever happened. Like his father would walk in at any moment to nag at him to clean his room, or to call him to train with the other paladins, or just sit with him and talk.

It was just too much for Lance and he couldn’t fight his tears much longer. For a moment he thought to go to Hunk’s room and just stay there with him, the balmeran was one of his best friends and they always knew exactly what to say to each other. But Lance just couldn’t bring his feet to go there. Maybe that would be a little too much for the balmeran, especially since he was so marveled by everything. Lance couldn’t (and wouldn’t) spoil everything for Hunk with his sadness.

He also couldn’t go to Pidge’s room. The poor olkari had as much pain as him (with the invasion of her planet and loss of her family). And Lance figured, since everything happened so fast, it wasn’t the right time for them to share their feelings. Plus the olkari was exhausted, she dropped on the bed as soon as Lance showed her the room and passed out. The prince would not wake her up just because he was feeling sad and lonely.

The same with Coran, the poor counselor was as much tired as Pidge. Of course he wouldn’t mind to keep Lance company, but the prince wasn’t cruel.

The best option was to go to Allura, but Lance was too much ashamed to go to her room. After all it was his fault that Altea was destroyed, that their father was dead, and that Zarkon was winning. It was all his fault and he couldn’t face Allura knowing that. The shame and the guilt were too great for him to look pass them.

But Lance didn’t want to stay in his room, his heart was aching just by looking at it. He didn’t even wanted to imagine what it would feel to step inside. What to do?

Then, like a wave of relief, Blue reached Lance. Her energy was bright and comforting, like the warm waters of his favorite lake in Altea. He wiped the tears that escaped his eyes and turned to the hangar, where the giant blue mechanical lioness was waiting for him.

For a moment Lance’s heart ached by the sight of the empty hangar, an obvious sign that the other lions were gone. As their paladins… Lance’s friends… But Blue welcomed him without judgment, without grief. She only send him the relief she was feeling to have her beloved paladin back, and Lance felt it like he was being hugged.

He stepped inside of the lioness and then, an only then, he cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to write about Lance and Blue interactions, it warms my heart in all the right places :’)  
> Again, I’m sorry about the grammar mistakes. I’m doing my best...  
> Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to see you again in the next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura cries, Keith and Lance argue and something calls Pidge.

Allura wondered what her father would think if he could see her now: she was lost, without resources and (frankly) quite scare. She knew she had to keep fighting Zarkon, but she also had no idea on how to do that. It was funny what her fate had in store for her, because now she was letting galra soldiers in her home. They were _rebel_ galra soldiers, but still the Princess couldn’t shake that sneaky felling of distrust. She already knew they could be trusted, but old habits die hard (she figured).

They were all reunited in the control room, and as Kolivan talked about their plan, she tried not to notice her brother’s baggy eyes. She could tell that Lance didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but she couldn’t really blame him. Allura herself couldn’t remember a night that she actually rested. First, it was because of the grief, then it was because she was worried sick about Lance, and now she was just tired. Tired of Zarkon, tired of that castle, and even tired of herself. It was like she couldn’t recognize her own reflection. What it once was a brave and strong princess that dreamed about becoming queen, was now a shell... A broken and empty shell.

She could only wonder what Lance was feeling.

The prince met her eyes and immediately looked away, Keith must had noticed Lance’s discomfort because when he looked at Allura it was like the little galra was worried. But she didn’t give it a lot of thought, he was probably worried about the princess’ reaction after hearing “the plan”… Truth to be told: she wasn’t impressed.

To be frank the rebel’s plan wasn’t really a plan. It was a series of steps:

 

_Step one: get the altean heirs in safety. Done!_

_Step two: get the lions of Voltron back._

_Step three: test Voltron._

_Step Four: actually make the plan to defeat Zarkon._

 

“Unfortunately we only know about the Red Lion’s location-“

“The castle is connected to all the lions,” Allura interrupted the Blade’s leader. She crossed her arms and completed with a sober tone: “Coran, please show us the lions.”

The older altean touched the monitor and there they were. All five lions and their exact locations.

“It appears that the closest one is the Green Lion,” Coran said looking at the map.

“It’s moving,” Lance commented taking a step closer.

“That’s because it’s in a vessel. It appears that it’s making a straight line…”

“Where is it going?” Kolivan asked.

“Let’s see…” Coran looked at the monitor, already making calculations. “If it keeps the course it will arrive at… Zurian…”

The room was filled with shock, frustration and even grief. Hunk didn’t get any of it.

“And why is it a bad thing?” he asked a little bit unsure of himself.

Keith turned to look at him and the little galra’s eyes practically burned with impatience.

“It’s only the strongest ally of the Galra Empire, it’s soldiers are some of the bests of the universe and their fortress is impenetrable. If the lion gets there we will never get it out without exposing ourselves!”

Lance stepped between the galra and Hunk.

“First thing,” the altean prince said with a very serious tone. “you don’t talk to someone as sensitive as Hunk like that.” The balmeran did seem very uncomfortable and a little scared. “second, you don’t talk to anyone like that. It was really rude!”

“Rude?” Keith couldn’t believe that. “We are in a war!”

Fangs were showing and Keith was growling, but Lance was not having that. No sir.

“Still! That is no excuse to be a complete asshole!”

“You little-“

“Quiet!”

Kolivan’s thundery voice filled the room and they were all silent. Keith could feel Shiro’s eyes burning on his back, but he didn’t care right now. He was still baring his fangs to the altean prince and it took all he got to just simply look away. As for Lance, he felt Allura’s hand squeazing his shoulder and he could hear Pidge calming Hunk down, apparently the balmeran wasn’t used to loud arguments…

Kolivan may be the one who got everyone quiet, but it was Allura who said:

“It doesn’t matter how heavily guarded the lions are, we need to get them back.”

“And we shall,” Kolivan replied. “We just need to intercept the vessel before it reaches Zurian.”

“How long we still have Coran?”

“Sixty vargas at least,” Pidge answered without even looking at the monitor.

  Coran checked and smiled and gave a thumb up.

“She is right.”

“We still have time then,” Kolivan said. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the castle can intercept the vessel with time to spare. We just need a team.”

“And a new green paladin,” Lance said more to himself than to anyone else.

But of course Allura heard.

“We can find them later,” she replied still squeezing his shoulder. “The priority right now is to retrieve the lion.”

“All right,” Kolivan said getting everyone’s attention. “Ulaz, Thace and Antok, think you can handle it?”

“There are a least a hundred of soldiers on that vessel,” Antok said crossing his arms, his tone turned from serious to amused in a blink on an eye. “Of course we can handle it.”

“Can you go with them, Lance?” The Princess asked turning to her brother.

For an instant it looked like Lance was going to decline, but he shook his head and smiled.

“Of course! Blue is dying to fly again.”

“I’m going too!” All eyes turned to Pidge and the olkari stood fearless, practically defying all of them. “That vessel may have information about my family, I have to go.”

“We cannot stop you, little one,” Kolivan replied in a sober tone. ”But we also cannot guarantee your safety.”

Although Pidge didn’t back down, they could tell she was feeling a little insecure. Lance was about to say something, but Keith was faster.

“I can take her.”

No blade seemed impressed, on contrary of the alteans. Lance, in particular, was looking at the galra prince with his mouth hanging open, as silly as that sounded.

Pidge, for the first time, gave Keith a real smile.

“Very well then.” That was all Kolivan have to say.

The hangars were open and the blue lion took flight, a small pod flew right behind her and just like that both got through the portal and disappeared.

“Are you alright, Princess?” Coran asked when the portal closed.

Allura was still looking at the window, her gaze was far away.

“Maybe it was a mistake to send Lance…” she replied. “I just got him back.”

“I understand…” The older altean smiled. “But he’s the blue paladin, we must let him go.”

It was Allura’s turn to smile.

“I know. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Coran laughed and Allura smiled at him before pulling him to a hug.

“I’m glad you’re save, Coran.”

He hugged her back and the Princess cried. It wasn’t a silence type of cry, more like a relief one. It was loud and frankly quite messy, the type of cry that turns your eyes puffy and makes your nose run. It was ugly, and yet, liberating.  She held back so many tears and didn’t really know why, but that seemed the right time to finally let them out. And Coran was glad to support her.

 

* * *

 

 

The galra vessel that was carrying the green lion had a very respectable size, and an almost scary number of weapons. And they were all pointing at the blue lion.

“You guys get inside,” Lance said before the vessel started shooting. “I’ll distract them.”

The plasma cannons started shooting and while Lance was avoiding the blasts, Keith started sneaking the small pod behind the vessel.

“Careful now,” Ulaz said when they were almost hit.

But it didn’t appear that the vessel was aiming at them, still to occupied trying to hit the blue lion. The lion on the other hand was avoiding each blast like it was a game, her moves were so suave and precise that almost seemed like a dance… A very dangerous dance.

The pod reached the vessel and faced the metal wall, Thace and Ulaz started to work on a plan to crack it open without alerting the guards inside, but Keith had a better idea.

“Hey, royal pain in the neck!”

The small galra called in the communicator and Lance only replied with a “Rude!”, which was promptly ignored.

“Open up, will you?”

Lance didn’t reply but soon the blue lion was aiming at their direction and fired. The ice ray blasted the wall slightly above them and the wreckage floated around the pod making room for it to land inside the vessel.

“Oh my stars, you guys,” Antok said when he noticed the grin in Keith’s face. “Keith has a crush.”

“No I don’t!” the galra prince yelled trying to hide the strong blush in his cheeks.

“Antok!” Thace slapped the other galra’s shoulder. “We are in the middle of a mission, be serious!”

“Besides,” Ulaz started before the pod’s door open. “it’s not like we don’t know.”

Keith was about to murder them, but the door opened and soon all of them putted theirs masks and started running. Keith groaned and putted his own mask, then he turned to Pidge.

“You ready?”

The olkari gave him a shit eating grin and Keith thanked the stars for having his mask on, or she would see how red his cheeks could turn.

“Shut up!” he said before picking her up in his back.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Whatever.” he started running behing his shitty friends. “Anyway, it’s not true.”

“If you say so…”

Keith groaned again and ran faster.

The plan was to reach the control room and launch the green lion into space, that way Lance would be able to pull her to the portal and bring her to the castle. But as soon as they reached the room them were surrounded by galra soldiers, all armed to the teeth and ready to put up a fight.

Antok attacked first, practically jumping on top of them with swords in hand, Ulaz and Thace weren’t far behind. Keith settled Pidge right in front of the control panel and was about to jump in too, but she grabbed his sleeve almost immediately.

“What’s wrong?” he noticed she was not looking at the panel, but at the door.

“Can’t you hear that?” she asked almost in trance.

“Hear what?”

“It’s calling me...”

And with that she ran. Keith, for a tick considered on staying. But he was the one who said it would take care of Pidge, so with a loud growl he ran after that crazy olkari.

“Where are you going?” Thace asked at the door.

“I don’t know!”

And he kept running, Thace gave him one last look and went back into the fighting , after all he knew Keith was more than capable of taking care of himself.

Pidge, so someone with very short legs, ran incredibly fast and Keith almost lost her in the second curve. He couldn’t really explain what was going on, because it didn’t matter how much he screamed she didn’t seem to hear. So Keith decided on just following her for now.

And he almost crashed into her when she finally stopped. Her ambar eyes were glued to the gigantic purple door in the end of the hall but she didn’t move.

“Pidge?”

Keith touched her lightly on the shoulder and that seemed to snap her back.

“Are you sure that you can’t hear this?”

Keith would be offended if it wasn’t for her tense expression, after all his hearing was extremely sensitive (even for galra standards).

“I’m not hearing anything,” he replied while looking around. Galra soldiers could surprise them at any moment and Keith hated surprises.

“It’s right here...”

She touched the door and even dared to give a little push, but it didn’t move. Keith even tried to help her, but he was not strong enough. Neither of them were. He was about to tell Pidge to give up, that they were running out of time, but as soon as he opened his mouth Antok, Thace and Ulaz ran into the hall. They were being followed by a least a dozen of galra sentinels and seemed way out of breath.

“How did you two get here?” Antok asked pressing himself against the door.

“Pidge says that something it’s calling her,” Keith replied getting his sword.

Thace was the only one out of the three that was shooting at the sentinels. Keith couldn’t blame the others, after all the Blade of Marmora had that name for a reason, and not many members had a very good aim. Keith himself preferred his sword and as soon as Thace ran out of ammo the prince was running at the remaining robots. There were a few left standing, Keith could handle them by himself.

“How did you guys get here?” the galra prince asked.

“This is where they are keeping the green lion,” Ulaz replied still caching his breath.

All three pushed the door, and still didn’t budge.

“ _Tarta_!” Antok swelled frustrated. “Thace, shoot that thing open!”

“I don’t have any more ammo…”

“Uhm… guys?” Lance called in the communicator. “Can you go a little faster? They are pulling the magnetic cannons.”

Pidge then noticed a control panel in the middle of the corridor and in a tick she was on top of it, her fingers pressing frantically at the monitor.

“Do you want me to do it?” Ulaz asked getting next to her. “It is galra tech after all.”

“I got it.”

And just when Keith finished the last sentinel the door opened. And there it was, a gigantic green mechanical lion, in all of her glory. Everyone got surprised when it bended over and opened the hatch. No one dared to move, except Pidge.

The olkari walked to the lion like they were old friends and was about to enter it when she turned to face them.

“Are you coming?” she asked with a genuine smile.

 

* * *

 

When Lance said he would play as bait he didn’t imagine it would be that hard. Sure he was agile and fast, but the others were taking way to long and he was starting to get tired. Not only that, the blasts were getting dangerously close and he was starting to get nervous. Where the _quisnak_ were they?!

The magnetic cannon shot one last time and Lance didn’t make the curve correctly, causing Blue to be hit in the front legs. The alarms rang in his ear and the motion system started to fail, he would not be able to avoid the next hit. The cannon started to charge and the held on, bracing himself for impact…

Truth to be told he was disappointed with himself, who could he get killed now when there was so many things to fix? And what would happen to Blue once he was gone? Would they disassemble her? Or just lock her away?

He was almost having a little panic attack when he felt Blue’s energy floating in him. She wasn’t angry at  him, in fact she was sure they would be just fine. She promised, making Lance cry.

And just like that the galra vessel exploded in a million pieces, leaving nothing more than wreckage and smoke.  Lance’s mind ran a thousand mile per hour and he honestly didn’t know how to feel. Yes he was alive… but what about the others?

“Guys?” he called in the communicator ignoring the cracks in his own voice.

“We are here.”

And then, coming out of the smoke, he saw it: the green lion in all her glory.

“Oh my stars! She found her new paladin!” Lance practically screamed in joy, Blue was happy too. He could feel it. “Who is it?”

“Me,” Pidge replied appearing on the screen. Her smile was as big as Lance’s. “Can we go now?”

Lance took a tick to savor the news and then replied:

“Took the words right off my mouth.” His smile got wider and he completed. “Welcome to the team, Pidge.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finally met Green! Isn’t this exciting?  
> Thank you all for the time you took to read this, for the kudos and especially for the comments. I read every single one of them and they make my day, seriously. They just make me so happy *sniff*  
> Anyhow, I hope you liked it and I’ll see you in the next chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk helps, Sendak is getting married and Shiro is tired.

“I can’t believe you convinced me to do this,” Hunk wined.

The balmeran was currently walking in the dark, in a strange place, feeling the walls like his life depended on it (it probably did).

“Come on, Hunk,” Pidge said behind him. “We talked about this.”

That was true, they did talk about it. But Hunk still couldn’t believe that he allowed himself to be dragged into this. It wasn’t like he was a fighter or anything, all he knew was how to dig and how to take care of the Balmeran crystals…  So, he figured he was just a balmeran who was at the wrong place on the wrong time.

Because that was the only reason he was there: he was indeed a balmeran.

“Who better to move around inside a Balmera than a balmeran?” Someone in the room asked, Hunk didn’t really remembered who.

Of course Lance had his back, saying that it wasn’t that simple (and it really wasn’t). But everyone in the room agreed that it was their best option, after all they didn’t have enough time.

And, once again, Hunk cursed. Why the _quiznak_ the galra had to hide the Yellow Lion on one of the biggest Balmeras on the Rutos system?!

It didn’t really matter at that point, they were already there! In the dark! Trying to stablish a connection with that enormous being!

“You doing okay, buddy?” Lance asked.

“No.” He really wasn’t.

Hunk was a balmeran, which meant that he was never supposed to leave his home. He was never supposed to see the sky, the sun, any of the outside. It was too dangerous. And besides, why would he leave? The Balmera would provide for him and his entire family. There was no reason to leave.

And yet that was Hunk’s biggest dream. Ever since he met Lance, he heard the stories of other words, galaxies and other beings. They were all so different from what he knew that he couldn’t even imagine them. Hunk wanted to explore, to see, touch and taste different things.

That wasn’t a bad dream, was it?

Because right now, he felt like he was being punished.

They didn’t even have the Blade of Marmora’s support! All because of a stupid wedding!

“Sendak, one of Zarkon’s best commanders, is going to marry a Ruto’s princess,” Kolivan explained. “That means that Zarkon himself, plus countless high ranked galras will be there. We can’t risk it getting ourselves exposed.”

“We understand,” Allura replied before Hunk could say anything.

And that was the end of it.

So now Hunk was standing on a strange Balmera in the dark, completely lost, with only Pidge and Lance as companions. He was having a bad feeling about this.

And he wasn’t the only one.

“How much further?” Lace asked looking around.

“Well,” Pidge replied looking at the tiny screen she was holding. “It says that the Yellow Lion is right on the right.”

They all looked at the right and faced the wall.

“How do we get there?” Lance asked touching the wall, like it would open at any second.

“This Balmera is strange,” Hunk said still touching the wall. “It seems like it doesn’t trust me.”

“Can’t you try harder?” Pidge asked.

“I’m trying!”

“Guys!” Lance shouted turning back. “Do you hear that?”

They got still and focused on the silence. It took a few thicks but there it was: sounds of steps. _Heavy_ steps.

“Oh quiznak,” the prince whispered getting his bayard. “ _Hunk_ , we need a direction! Any direction!”

“I don’t know!” he whispered back. “This Balmera doesn’t trust me, it thinks we want it harm!”

“Convince it we are good guys!” it was Pidge’s turn to whisper. Although her whispers were rattler loud.

“It’s not that simple!”

“Shut it, both of you!” Lance almost shouted when the steps got closer. “It’s coming our way, get ready.”

Lance pointed his bow at the step’s direction and Pidge got next to him with her own bayard, leaving Hunk behind them fidgeting with his own hands.

They were silence while the steps got eve closer and them they saw: another balmeran.

She was as big as Hunk and it didn’t seem dangerous. Actually, she seemed curious.

“You are not galra,” she said taking a step closer.

“Neither are you,” Lance replied with a smile.

He and Pidge put their bayards away.

“If you are not galra,” she continued, “who are you?”

“My name is Lance,” the altean said offering his hand. “The young Prince of Altean and the Blue Paladin of Voltron. These are my friends, Pidge of Olkarion and the Gree Paladin; and Hunk-”

“You are just like me,” she said with a smile.

For some reason Hunk felt like there was something tickling his stomach.

“My name is Shay,” she continued. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a very long story,” Pidge said stepping closer. “The galra took from Lance’s family and we need it back.”

“Can you help us?” Lance asked.

Shay’ sparkle of curiosity suddenly faded and she took a step back.

“We are not supposed to help strangers,” She explained. “King Luthor was very specific about that.”

“You are talking about the king of Rutos,” Lance said in a serious tone. “What does it matter what he wants?”

Shay expression became sad and it was with a heavy heart that she replied:

“Ever since the galra won the war Balmeras became private possessions. Every day they harvest our crystals, not caring about the Balmera itself, and slave more and more of us. Just yesterday they took my father and brother away.”

Pidge touched her hand. “I know how that feels. I’m sorry.”

While they were talking Hunk’s heart got heavier and heavier. He didn’t know any of that stuff! Sure, beings from other planets would come to his home sometimes for a balmera crystal, but it was always a peacefully exchange. The Balmera would give them the crystal and them would give the Balmera some of their energy. It was simple and easy. It didn’t hurt and so Hunk and his family could live and peace.

Just the thought of a Balmera being treated like that gave him the chills and suddenly he needed to lie down. It was wrong and he could bear the thought of it. Was that what happened to Pidge’s planet? To other Balmeras? To other planets of all galaxy?!

He wasn’t going to allow that.

“We are going to help you,” he said completely interrupting what Lance was saying. All three pairs of eyes turned to him, but he didn’t back down. “I don’t really know how, but we will. I promise you!”

Shay gave him a smile and, just like that, he heard it.

It was like a whisper that entered his heart and filled his mind. It was like something was calling him. Someone. And when Hunk touched the wall the Balmera didn’t resist him and the wall opened.

That was the first time Hunk saw the Yellow Lion and it felt like he was looking at a very old and dear friend.

“Hell yeah,” Lance said behind him. “Things are finally getting better!”

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you ready, Sendak?” Zarkon asked stepping closer.

They were both standing at the door of the Ceremonial Hall, waiting their cue to enter and start the marriage. Zarko would enter with Sendak since the commander had no living relatives (a common thing for galra soldiers), both of them looked more interested in watching paint dry than being there.

 “Yes, sir,” the commander replied not even trying to sound convincing.

“I feel like I need to apologize to you Sendak,” the emperor said keeping his eyes at the door. “I trained you myself, so it’s no surprise that you are one of my best commanders, one of the best fighters among the galra soldiers and probably the most loyal one.” Sendak gave him a shocked look, but Zarkon ignored him. “It pains me to leave you at this miserable planet. And, for that, I’m sorry.”

“If I may, sir,” Sendak said with caution. “Why am I being left here then?”

“Because you and Prince Lotor were being indiscrets,” that made Sendak’s gaze drop and (again) Zarkon ignored it). “And I rather leave you here to rot than to let those rumors become truth. Do you know why?” Sendak didn’t reply. “Because a crowned prince shouldn’t be involved with a mere soldier. Doesn’t matter how valuable he is.”

Zarkon’s words burned more than Sendak anticipated, but it was alright. He got his answer in the end.

“Sir,” a voice called behind them.

It was a galra guard, and it looked like he had bad news.

“What is it?” Zarkon asked when the guard got close enough.

“The lions of Voltron, sir.” The guard swallowed and looked at the ground before continuing. “We lost the yellow one.”

Sendak looked at his emperor, expecting to see a least a sign of anger (or something), but Zarkon stood emotionless. It was the most terrifying thing Sendak had ever seen.

“The Yellow Lion, you say,” the emperor said with a calm tone. “The same Yellow Lion that I gave to Luthor, the king of this planet we are standing right now?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

Zarkon gave his guard an understanding smile and told him to prepare everything for their leave. The wedding was off.

“Come, Sendak,” the emperor said opening the door with a sword on his hand.

“Sir?”

“We need to show what happens when you lose my trust, don’t you agree?”

That made Sendak smile. The two of them walked inside the Ceremonial Hall and when the doors closed the only thing to be heard was the sound of screams and bodies falling on the floor.

 

* * *

 

 

“They are taking too long,” Keith said for the tenth time, making Shiro sigh and to look at the ceiling, wondering what had him done to deserve such cruel fate.

“Relax,” the human replied covering his face. “They are going to be fine.”

“We should have gone with then.”

“You know why we couldn’t, so stop whining.” Shiro wished, not for the first time that day, that he could go back in time and tell himself never to live his bed. He was exhausted!

And Keith was being no help at all!

“What we’ll do if they don’t come back?”

“They will come back.”

“What if they don’t?”

Shiro’s patience was famous among the blades, it sometimes appeared endless and it was (most of the times) rock solid. But that day Shiro didn’t get the chance to sleep very well, his night terrors got worse and he spent the entire night fighting ghosts. So now he was tired, cranky and just not in the mood to deal with anything.

“Keith,” he said looking right in the prince’s eyes. “Lance’s a full trained paladin of Voltron and Pidge is smarter than all of us combined, they know how to take care of themselves. And Hunk is so sweet and cute that no one will have the heart to hurt him. So - for the tenth time - relax!”

He covered his face again and Keith sat back for a few thicks, making Shiro believe that the silence was here to stay.

But it wasn’t.

“But _what if_ they don’t come back?”

Shiro threw his hands at air and got up, that was it! The day Keith was going to get a punch in his face! The prince protected his face while Shiro stood in front of him, but, before Shiro could do anything, he got distracted by something on the window.

Keith didn’t know what it was, but Shiro was smiling.

“They are going to be just fine,” the human said taking his seat again.

He pointed at the window before Keith could ask. The prince turned around and there they were: three lions of Voltron with their paladins.

“Oh.”

That’s all that came out of Keith mouth for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back *jazz hands*! I’m sorry about the lack of updates, there were a lot of things keeping me from this story, like final projects, the new season of Voltron, the fact that English is hard as heck, among other stuff…  
> And I was really scared of this chapter, I think Hunk is a very difficult character to write about and there was a lot of focus on him, so yeah… but now, I think we can move on. There are only two lions left and then I can finally write my favorite chapters and I hope you will stay with me until then. I am trying my best to make a good story and a good au, and I’m really thankful you got the time to read this.  
> It means a lot to me, so thank you again.  
> And please, do feel welcome to leave comments. I read every single one of them, they make my day and inspire me to write better content for you.  
> I don’t know when will be the next update, but it is safe to say that it will be soon. And I hope to see you all there 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Red (part 1)

The news of what happened to the Royal Family of Rutos spread like wild fire trough the galaxies, and in a blink of an eye almost all the galra’s allies turned against the empire. Allura said that was a good thing, because after they succeeded reassembling Voltron they were going to need assistance from other planets.

But right now it wasn’t such a good thing for Keith for the simple fact that the young prince knows Zarkon; how he acts and how he thinks. He knew that once Zarkon came back to the capital he would be furious for the loss of the lions, and the fact that Keith didn’t return when he was told would only get things worse. 

So when Lotor called again, Keith was forced to answer.

“Where in the _tarta_ are you, brat?!” the crowned prince asked in a low growl.

“I’m coming back to the Capital,” Keith replied like it was the most obvious thing in the universe. “Why are you so tense? Aren’t you happy that your boyfriend is coming back?”

That made Lotor freeze and Keith couldn’t hold the laugher. 

“Father is already furious about the loss of the yellow lion,” Lotor began after a moment. “Do you really want to make matters worse mentioning this?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“Doesn’t really matter…” Lotor said looking a little sad. “Father is still sending him away.”

For a moment Keith didn’t know what to say. Just because they were supposed to be brothers didn’t mean that they knew how to _behave_ like brothers. Sharing wasn’t a common thing for them and neither knew where to go from it. So, after a moment of awkward silent, Lotor spoke again, this time with a more professional tone.

“When will you arrive?”

“In a _quintant_ or so.”

“Good, I’ll talk to you later then.”

They said their goodbyes and the screen in front of Keith went black. The prince didn’t move.

“You okay?” Shiro asked behind him.

“He seemed so sad…” Keith stood up avoiding Shiro’s eyes. “Anyway… we need to get back.”

“It’ll be a good thing,” Shiro said touching his shoulder. “We can get information on how to get the Red Lion.”

“You’re right… It’s just that I hate the Capital!”

That made Shiro smile.

“We all do.”

 

* * *

 

“So… you are telling me that they are gone, correct?” Lance asked Kolivan for the fifth time.

The Leader was starting to lose his patience.

“That’s correct, my prince. Where exactly are you going from this?”

“Nothing.” Lance was lying, Kolivan could tell. “Aren’t you concerned about them?”

“Why should I?”

“I don’t know!” Lance replied throwing his arms in the air. “It’s the Capital! The most dangerous place in the galaxy!” He then grabbed Kolivan by the shoulders. “How do you know they’re going to be safe?!”

Kolivan stood still for a second, trying to gather the remaining pieces of his patience. Slowly he took Lance’s hands off of him and stood even taller, looking straight into the prince’s eyes. Lance may not knew Kolivan that well (at all, actually) but even him could tell that the Blade leader was going to give him the lecture of his life!

“Prince Lance!” Coran screamed behind them. Lance’s shoulders relaxed and Kolivan face palmed himself for the third time that day. “Are you pestering the Blades again?!”

“I’m bored!” Lance replied walking towards Coran. “There is nothing to do around here…”

“I’m sure that the new paladins would love your assistance concerning the Lions-”

“Allura said that it’s best to let them bond alone before we start the team training,” the prince heard that suggestion all day, and he just couldn’t hear it anymore. “And I can’t fly with Blue because of the damn sensors! I can’t do anything around here!”

Coran was with his arms crossed and exchanged a look with Kolivan, the two of them were way too old for that.

“Very well then,” Coran said taking Lance’s arm. “Since you are so bored you can help me clean the castle!”

“WHAT?”

Now the sight of Coran pulling a whining Lance towards the altean castle with the promise of chores was something quite priceless. Kolivan gave a small laugh and went back to work.

“What’s so funny?” Ulaz asked stepping closer.

“Lance was bugging me.”

“Again?! That the fourth time today…”

“He’s just worried about Keith and Shiro.”

At that it was Ulaz’s turn to laugh, for someone who had so many mean comments on Keith, Lance sure was something else. Not even Thace, who practically raised the galra prince, was that worried. Maybe Antok was right: both boys did have a crush on each other.

Who could really say?

But, besides that, Keith and Shiro were going to be alright, Kolivan and the rest of the blades knew that. They had been doing that for years now. Almost a decade and they were always very careful in the capital. There was no extra reason for them to worry.

All they had to do was wait for the right opportunity.

 

* * *

 

The Red Lion was being kept inside the castle, on the lowest level. Lotor made sure to put two guards on each entrance, surveillance drones on all corners, and he even put sentinels surrounding the lion.

When Keith saw all of that, he couldn’t hide it: he was really impressed.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit of an over kill?” he asked looking at the Red Lion, for some reason it seemed like it’s eyes were following him.

“Father said to keep the lion save,” Lotor replied in a dry tone. “So I will keep the lion save.”

“I don’t think you need my help with this...”

Before Keith could walk away Lotor grabbed him by the arm and turned him around.

“But I do, brother of my. You see: father is angry. And for some reason the alteans are finding the lions and taking them back. Which only makes him even more angry.”

“What’s your point?”

“If I lose this lion I won’t carry the fault alone, understand?”

Keith needed a moment, but a deeper look on Lotor’s eyes were enough.

“Are you… scared?” the young prince asked with a small smile.

That made Lotor release his arm.

“Of course not! But, even if I was, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Really?”

“Really. Father was never angry at you.”

It was true, for some reason Zarkon never got angry with Keith. The emperor was harsh and crude to the young prince (giving him a tough education), but he was never angry or cruel. It happened very rarely, but Keith remembered when they were kids and Lotor would do something “improper”. The young prince never saw it happen, no one ever did, but he did see the bruises on the older prince’s arms, back and neck. Lotor never complained and never talked about it.

And he was not going to start now.

“Alright,” Keith said looking down. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to guard the red lion.”

Keith crossed his arms again and groaned. He quickly added “On one condition” before Lotor could laugh at him.

“Take the sentinels away.”

Lotor looked suspiciously at him. “Why?”

 “I hate sentinels, you know that.”

Lotor laughed at that, he remembered when the little Keith used to run from the sentinels and hide behind Shiro, covering his face from their scary figures. Lotor had always found that hilarious.

“Alright, little brother.” He offered his hand and completed: “No sentinels.”

Both brothers shook hands and Lotor moved to take the sentinels away, Keith looked at the robots leaving and, once they were all gone with Lotor, the room felt too quiet.

“So that’s the Red Lion humm?” Shiro asked behind him. “Thought it would be bigger.”

“I know…” Keith still felt the lion’s eyes following him, for some reason that was getting his interest. “Do you have the feeling that it’s watching you?”

That made Shiro raise an eyebrow.

“Not really. But remember that Princess Allura did say something about them being conscious.”

“What does that mean?” Keith asked crossing his arms again.

“I don’t know,” Shiro replied with a smile, “maybe she likes you.”

That made Keith look at lion again, it’s eyes were still on him and that made the prince feel small. Keith always hated feeling small, but right now it felt different. As ironic as that sounded: being in the Capital that he hated, standing below the castle that was never his home, right in front of that majestic and mechanical beast that he never thought he would see, made him feel safe. Like someone was finally watching over him.

So when Red smiled at him, he smiled back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hi... I’ll admit: I’m not as okay as I thought. My depression is really kicking in and I feel kinda of lost. But I still love this fic, I love this au and I want to keep writing it. It calms me, you know? I really wanted to make regular updates like before, but… I don’t want to make promises that I’m not sure I can keep. So, instead, I’ll try to update a couple times a month.  
> So, please, don’t give up on me. Please.  
> Again, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you’re enjoying it. And feel free to leave a comment, it encourages me to keep writing. I’ll see you in the next chapter!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Red (part 2)

Keith hated the Capital, but he had to admit that is was better when Zarkon wasn’t around. The atmosphere felt lighter somehow, as if he could relax (if only a little). It wasn’t like he and Shiro were save, they really weren’t. Lotor was still very dangerous, and he wasn’t a fool either. But Keith did feel a little better when it was just his “brother”; after all he had practice escaping from Lotor ever since he could remember.

If things went south, at least he and Shiro still had a chance to run.

But that chance didn’t exist when Zarkon was in the Capital. The air felt heavier, their moves were more calculated, their actions were stiff and that sensation of always being watched never really went away.

It’s been almost a week since Zarkon had returned.

Lotor stayed on his father side most of the time, trying to create a strategy on how to get the altean heir and their lions. When he wasn’t with the Emperor, Lotor would sneak around the abandoned halls with Sendak (the only reason Keith knew about that was because he was sneaking around those same halls trying to communicate with the Blade).At first the crowned prince was taking the task of guarding the Red Lion very seriously, but as soon as Keith arrived to help, he didn’t really care anymore.

Keith wasn’t complaining.

Zarkon only came to look at the lion once, just to make sure it was being well guarded. He didn’t have any complains, but Keith felt there was something more. He could tell by the way his “father” looked at the Red Lion, like if the two were old but distant friends.

“That’s our last lion, Keith,” he said touching the red shield that surrounded the feline robot. “No one will take it away from us. Not this one.”

“Yes, father.” That all Keith had to say.

The young prince and Shiro needed a plan to take the Red Lion without a commotion; the Blade of Marmora would not help on this mission since they were still hidden. But the Alteans and their lions would help. They needed to be careful in this mission, since it would be the perfect situation for Zarkon to steal the lions and capture the prince. If that happened it would all been for nothing. The war would be finally over and the Alteans would be dead, and with them, whatever it was left of hope.

Keith would never let that happen.

So they were being very careful, more careful than Keith had ever being in his entire life. They just needed to be patient.

While Shiro tried to hack the drones, or mess up the security system, or just try to make Lotor’s life a little bit difficult; Keith would spend his time in front of the Red Lion. The gigantic cat intrigued the young prince with no end, so Keith would sit in front of it and just watch. He memorized all the lion’s features, every scratch, every mark. Those were the signs of a life made of war and fire, just like his scars.

Keith doesn’t really know when he started to talk to Red, but he did remember when she started to reply. She wouldn’t talk to him in words, but in pictures. He would tell her about his childhood, about his real home; she would reply by showing Altean and her sisters, on how much they meant to her. He told her about growing up with Lotor and their hard training, she showed him the first war she fought, all the fire, the explosions, the destruction she left behind.

He told her about his family, about Shiro and the Blades; she showed him King Alfor, Princess Allura and Prince Lance. Keith could tell she remembered them fondly; they were all smiling and happy (just like a real family should be). With a heavy heart Keith replied:

“I met Allura and Lance.” Red purred after hearing their names. “Allura is really nice, I never knew a princess that brave, you know? At the other princess are so boring.” Red sent him a warm wave of pride and he continued: “She is also very strong, probably stronger than all of us. I mean... I do not think I could handle all that shit that is being thrown at her. And Lance… well, I don’t think he likes me very much. I don’t like him very much either.” It seemed like Red didn’t believe him, because she sent him images of the prince. All of them had Lance smiling or laughing, Keith ignored the burning on his cheeks and continued: “I mean, it’s not like I hate him. He’s just so loud! And so obnoxious sometimes!” It felt like Red was laughing at him, but at least she seemed to understand.

Then Red sent him an image of Alfor again. He looked a lot like Lance. Both had the same huge smile, the shiny blue eyes and the proud heroic pose. Keith could feel Red’s sadness; he could tell that she missed her paladin greatly.

“I didn’t know King Alfor,” he said with a sad voice. “He seemed an incredible being.”

Red sent him more images of Alfor, in all of them he was doing something heroic. He seemed brave, intelligent, compassionated and very kind. All the images were surrounded with love and warm, and they made Keith fell admiration, sadness and a little sorrow. _So that’s what a true king looked like, humm?_

Keith was just about to say something when steps filled the room, it wasn’t Shiro so the spy mask was back on. When Haggar stood in front of the Red Lion, Keith was in the corner, in the perfect guard stance, looking at her with could and professional eyes.

“What brings you here, Haggar?” He asked with a cold tone.

“Orders from the Emperor, my prince,” she replied while a scary number of druids followed her. “You are release from your guard.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Emperor had given us specific orders to dismember the Red Lion-“

“What?!” Keith stepped away from the corner and placed himself right in front of the Red Lion, like a shield. “Why?”

Haggar looked right in his eyes before replying:

“It is not my place, or yours, to question the Emperor’s orders.”

If her plan was to intimidate Keith, it wasn’t working.

“I’m the young prince,” he said not moving a muscle, “and I demand to know why.”

“Voltron can only be formed if the five lions are together,” the witch answered still looking at his eyes. She was known for her cold stare, but Keith wouldn’t budge. “take away one of it’s pieces and Voltron doesn’t exist.”

“It’s still a very important and powerful weapon,” Keith said noticing the druids taking small steps closer. “Besides, there is a shield around it, how do you plan on dismembering something you can’t touch?”

That made Haggar smile. It was a cold and sadistic sight, but it still was a smile.

“You brat would be impress on how much I still remember of altean technology,” she walked pass him and touched the shield. “This won’t be a problem.”

Keith’s mind was running thousand miles an hour trying to find something to say that would make them stop. The mere thought of Red being dismembered was enough to break his heart, but he couldn’t blow his cover. The Blade needed spies!

But the druids were not stopping and Haggar begun to cast her spells. There wasn’t time for thinking. There wasn’t time for anything!

“Oh quiznak!” he said before taking his sword.

Haggar didn’t see the attack, one moment she had her hands on the red glowing shield and on the other she was facing the ground. The druids looked at her before looking at Keith, the young prince had his back to the shield in a perfect fighting stance with sword in hand.

“What are you doing?” Haggar asked while two druids helped her up.

“You are not touching this lion,” that was all Keith had to say.

And all hell broke loose. Haggar gave the order and the druids charged after the young prince, sparks flew in the air and Keith didn’t back down. He meant it: they were not touching Red, not when he had something to say about it.

The fight was uneven, Keith was way outnumbered and he knew that he was going to lose, but at least he would lose giving everything he had. He even managed to keep his ground for a while, but soon enough the druids managed to immobilize him and dragged him to Haggar. She was furious with him and only asked:

“Why?”

“Do you really need me to say it?”

She snorted in frustration and raised her arm, Keith closed his eyes, ready for the pain. But they were interrupted by the biggest growl Keith had ever heard and when he opened his eyes again Haggar and some of her druids were on the floor.

The young prince looked around and there was Red, without her shield and with the mouth open. He was insecure at first, but it only took a second look to know what she wanted.

“Keith?!” Shiro asked running inside the room.

The prince didn’t have time to respond, he only grabbed Shiro’s arm and pulled him inside the lion. Red welcomed him with a warm wave of caring and in a blink of an eyes they were flying.

“Look on the bright side, Shiro,” Keith said with the biggest smile of his life. “At least we don’t have to stay in the Capital anymore.”

 

* * *

 

 

“You are lying,” Zarkon said looking down at Haggar.

“I’m not, my lord,” she said bowing her head. “Prince Keith betrayed all of us.”

“Keith wouldn’t do that.”

“But he did, my father,” Lotor said stepping in. “Don’t believe us? Look at the drones, they filmed it.”

“Do not disrespect me, boy.”

Normally Lotor would follow his mother lead and bow, but not right now. Lotor was just as furious as his father and wasn’t caring about anything anymore.

“Since when it’s disrespectful to say the truth? Keith betrayed us, he betrayed you!”

“Enough!”

Zarkon’s thundery voice silenced the room and although Lotor didn’t reply, he didn’t look down either. Father and son stared at each other and finally Lotor looked away.

“What will we do now?” the crowed prince asked with a drained tone.

“We will kill everyone who opposes us.”

“Even Keith?”

It took a thick to Zarkon to reply, but when he did his voice was filled with sorrow, hurt and anger.

“ _Specially_ Keith.”

It froze Lotor’s blood.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance was sitting inside Blue cleaning his bayard, it wasn’t much but he figured since he couldn’t take his girl flying he could at least make her company (it didn’t counted the nights he would cry himself to sleep inside her).

So while he did that he also wondered on how in the quiznak they would retrieve the Red Lion. It wouldn’t be just difficult, it would also be very dangerous and terrifying. Not to mention the hardest part: if they _did_ get the Red Lion back, who would be its paladin?

Red was his father’s lion. She would always be his father lion.

He could still remember the first time King Alfor took him on a ride, Lance’s heart was beating so fast that day that it felt like it was going to explode! Alfor held him tight, made everything seen so simple and easy... It was one of the best days of his live!

Blue sent his a jealous wave and the altean prince had to laugh, sometimes she was such a drama queen!

“Calm down, gorgeous, you’re still my favorite.”

Blue seemed to relax at that and Lance smiled at the warm wave of love she sent him. But his smiled didn’t last long, the doubt was still there. Who would pilot the Red Lion? Who would be skillful enough for that? Who would be _brave_ enough?

 And, as if the universe was toying with him, the alert went off. Someone was approaching the castle.

Lance ran to hangars as fast as he could, Allura and Coran were already there, so as most of the Blades. Pidge arrived after him and finally Hunk. They all were concerned, who could it be?!

And, like a quiznaking ghost, Red stepped inside the hangar.

Lance didn’t believe his eyes. And for a moment he truly though he was losing his mind as he watched Keith stepping out of Red. Shiro followed right behind, but there was no way of denying it: Red chose Keith.

Quiznaking Keith.

The Blades were the first to move, they propably wanted to welcome Keith and Shiro back, and congratulate them on the retrieving of the Red Lion. Hunk also moved, followed by Pidge and Coran. Allura gave Lance a light squeeze on his shoulders before moving and Lance was left alone.

Honestly, he didn’t know what they were telling Keith, but right now he didn’t care.

Keith was the only one that noticed when Lance stepped out of the hangar, and although he couldn’t see, the altean prince was furious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am feeling a little better, thanks for the comments and the concern. There are good and bad days, you know?   
> Moving along: thank you all for taking the time to read this, we are reaching an important part of the story and I hope you liked it. I really like writing about the paladins bounding with theirs lions, it’s very (VERY) relaxing. I definitely recommend it if you are not feeling well.  
> And again, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you’re enjoying it. Feel free to leave a comment, it encourages me to keep writing. I’ll see you in the next chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is not well and the Black Lion is picky.

When Keith appeared with the Red Lion, Allura didn’t know what to think.

After all Red was her father’s lion. The fastest, the most stubborn and the most loyal lion. She remembered growing up watching the lions being passed on to new generations, but not Red. The small lion had refused every single paladin that Alfor chose (including the princess herself), and she could have sworn that Red was never going to have a new paladin. The bond with Alfor was just too strong.

And now Red, the same stubborn and loyal lion, had chosen a galra to pilot her.

It was not like she hated Keith personally, she really didn’t. In fact she was very grateful for him, after all it was the galra prince how saved Coran and brought Lance back to her. But, after a life time of galra attacks, she also couldn’t shake the distrust, the fear… and the hate.

Allura knew that it was wrong to think of Keith or any of the Blades that way. But when Lance stomped out of the hangar, she didn’t judge him. They both needed time to adjust to their new friends.

“Congratulations Keith,” she said with her best smile. “I must admit that I was very worried about the Red Lion, but she seems to be in good hands.”

Keith gave her a shy nod before replying with a “Thank you, princess”; she noticed he wasn’t used to the attention, which was quite unusual, since he was such a public figure. But she was not going to touch the subject… For now.

They all had a more important problem to handle.

“Now that all the lions are back to the castle, we can finally release the Black Lion,” she announced with a real smile.

“Princess, if I may,” Thace asked before they started moving. “Who exactly should be the black paladin now?”

That made Allura stop.

“Well, it is not really up to me,” she explained gently. “Because, as you have found, the lions choose theirs pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced.”

“Is it a matter of luck then?” it was Ulaz turn to ask since he was not liking the new odds.

“Not exactly, the quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in their lion, so we can at least guess.” The galras kept looking at her waiting and she continued: “The black lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation.”

“Sounds like you, boss,” Antok said looking at Kolivan.

The others agreed and Allura smiled again before saying: “Shall we?”

 

* * *

 

 

Lance was being childish, he knew, but it was not like he could help it.

“Lance?” Hunk and Pidge called entering Blue’s hangar.

The altean prince ignored them, he sank deeper on his seat inside his lion and kept cleaning his bayard, not even looking up.

“We know you are upset about something,” Hunk said playing with his own fingers. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Lance didn’t reply.

“Come on, Lance,” Pidge said way less gentler than Hunk. “We know you don’t like Keith, but that’s ridiculous!”

Blue didn’t understand the olkari’s statement and was fast to send Lance pictures of Keith in a questioning wave. That plus Pidge’ shouts made Lance groan.

“Lance is not here right now,” he said in Blue speaker.

It was Pidge’s turn to groan and Hunk turned at her with a confuse look.

“It tough he liked Keith.”

“What?” Pidge replied with shock. “Where did you get that?”

“Well,” Hunk said moving his fingers in a nervous tick, “when Keith and Shiro were in the capital Lance wouldn’t be quiet about them. He was so concerned…”

Lance’s blood froze and Pidge needed a moment to process, she had been so busy in her lion that she didn’t notice. But she sure as heck remembered.

“You are right, Hunk,” she turned back to the Blue Lion and screamed: “Lance! What in the quiznak?! Explain yourself right now!”

Lance hid his face with his hands and didn’t reply, he could feel the heat on his cheeks and was so grateful that no one could see him right now.

Below him Pidge and Hunk continued to call him, but he really didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Eventually they gave up.

“The Black Lion is going to choose her new paladin,” Pidge said walking away, “let’s go Hunk, we don’t want to miss it.”

“You are more than welcome to come too, Lance,” Hunk said following the small olkari.

At just like they were gone. A small part of Lance was sad for the fact that his friends left, since Lance never really liked being  alone; but the rest of him was grateful, Lance didn’t trust himself to be close to others right now.

He felt the shame crawling up his skin and a sour taste in his mouth. His face was still burning and his heart was beating so hard that if almost busted out of his chest, he couldn’t face the others… He couldn’t face Keith.

Not right now, at least…

Blue felt his trouble feelings and purred in a comforting way, it pained her when her paladin felt this way, but all she could do was send him warm waves of love and comfort. Embracing him completely in a little save bubble.

For now, it was more than enough for Lance.

 

* * *

 

 

Keith noticed when Pidge and Hunk returned to their group. He figured they were going to get Lance, but since the altean prince was nowhere he could see, it was a safe assumption that Lance was not going to show up anytime soon. That made Keith feel genuinely bad, but he didn’t have time for that right now.

Kolivan was standing in front of the Black Lion, a purple shield was surrounding her and she seemed to be asleep, not even bothering to give the group a look.

“What now?” Kolivan asked with his arms crossed.

“Don’t you feel anything?” Allura asked a little insecure.

“No.”

“Interesting…” Coran said between Thace and Ulaz, “Perhaps you need to talk to her?”

Kolivan didn’t seem too comfortable with that whole situation, but he still cleared his throat and gave the shield a light touch.

“Hello?”

The Black Lion didn’t respond.

Kolivan was not the one.

“What do we do now?” Thace asked after an awkward long time.

“Well…” Allura said with not much confidence, “Pidge, Hunk and Lance guaranteed me that the Black Paladin is among us.”

“You two are sure about that?” Kolivan asked stepping in their direction.

“Yes sir,” Hunk said still playing with his own fingers, “Black doesn’t let us sleep because of this.”

Kolivan kept looking at them waiting for a better explanation and Pidge said:

“Now that we are paladins we each have a special connection with our lions, like Allura said it’s a bond. But we discovered that the connection it’s not exclusive, we are all connected to all the paladins and to all the lions. The Black Lion is using her connection to talk to us, to tell that her paladin is near and she is becoming impatient.”

“She didn’t tell you who did she?”

“Not really.”

Kolivan let out a frustrated sigh, the galras behind him seemed to share the sentiment.

“Why don’t you all try?” Keith said resting against the wall beside Shiro. “Like king Arthur?”

“Pardon?” Allura and Coran asked on the same time.

“It’s an Earth story,” Thace explained, “Queen Zarna brought a few books with her when she returned and the ‘Matter of Britain’ was one of them, one of its stories is about a magic sword on a stone-“

“What does that have to do with anything?” Allura asked with little patience.

“In the story only the true worthy could pull the sword,” Thace continued, “If we all try we will find out who the Black Lion wants faster.”

“They are right,” Coran said calmly.

Allura had to agree, but a small part of her was saying that it would all be for nothing. But they had to try, right?

 

* * *

 

 

Lance lost track of time inside Blue, and could you blame him? Blue was not only his best friend, she was much more than that, she was _part_ of him. And she knew him like no one else, so when he was feeling down she wasted no time and efforts comforting him.So when he finally came out the lights had changed to night time.

He send Blue a last smile and whispered a “Thank you, gorges” before leaving her hangar.

Lance figured that the Black Paladin situation was already deal with so he walked calmly to the dining room expecting everyone to be there, but before he reached his destination a roar invaded his ears. It was not Blue’s roar, he could tell, but he was still concerned. So he walked back, following the noise.

Imagine his surprise when he entered the Black Lion’s hangar and faced not only his friends, but also the entire Blade of Marmora. The hangar was full of faces, all turned to him because of the noise but soon returned to the Black Lion, who was still surrounded by her shield.

“What’s going on?” Lance asked to no one in particular.

“The Black Lion hasn’t chosen her paladin yet,” Keith replied still leaning against the wall.

“All the Blades tried, even Coran and your sister,” Shiro completed.

“Then it must be something wrong,” Lance replied joining them.

“We’ve been watching them all day,” Shiro said, “The Balck Lion didn’t even move.”

Lance crossed his arms and observed as two blades got too frustrated with the Black Lion and started hitting on her shield.

“Open up you picky overgrown beast!” they shouted.

Allura was exhausted, Lance could see it in her eyes, and he understood: they were all so worried about the Red Lion that no one was prepared for the Black Lion’s drama. They were missing something, Lance could feel it.

“They all tried?” Lance asked without taking his eyes of the Black Lion.

“Yep,” Keith replied.

“What about you, Shiro?”

“What?” Shiro and Keith asked at the same time.

“Did you try?”

The human looked at Lance, than at Keith and back at Lance. That was ridiculous!

“Of course not! I’m not a leader-”

“The bond between lion and paladin cannot be forced or explained,” Lance said uncrossing his arms. “It’s true that Black only had paladins that were natural born leaders, but that doesn’t mean she would choose someone like that again. Give it a try, Shiro. It wouldn’t hurt, right?”

“But…” Shiro looked down feeling suddenly too small for that conversation. “I don’t know how to lead…”

Lance gave him a smile and finished with a: “Don't worry, she’s an amazing teacher.”

Shiro gave Keith a questioning look and only moved when the galra prince nodded.

Keith and Lance stood side by side, watching as Shiro walked towards the Black Lion. And before he could raise his hand, the purple shield around her vanished. She roared a final time and opened her mouth.

The entire hangar went silence and all eyes were on Shiro. He looked around feeling confident for the first time in ages, and smiled before entering his lion.

The Paladins of Voltron were finally complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! (Really) Long time no see! I didn't know how to write this part, but I'm pretty happy with the result, so that's something right? And finally we will reach my favorite part of the story, so please be patient with me.  
> Again, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you’re enjoying it. And feel free to leave a comment, it encourages me to keep writing.  
> I'll see you all in the next chapter!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Coran need a drink

With all five paladins, Allura and Kolivan agreed that the Altean Castle and the Blade of Marmora should go different ways for now. The new paladins needed a secure and quiet place to train, not risking the Blade’ secrecy and the princess already had the perfect spot.

So before they go to this new place they all had a very good night sleep… at least most of them.

Coran couldn’t sleep that night, which was something odd for him (since he was so exhausted all the time). He really tried but it didn’t matter what position he got, or how many pillows he used, or how many _rascadedels_ he counted, there was no use. So, being the responsible adult that he was, he got up to do the only thing that was left for him to do.

He was going to get a drink.

 He passed Allura’s room and the fact that he couldn’t hear her usual crying made him smile. She was getting better, slowly, but he still counted that as a victory. He never heard anything from Lance’s room, which had always concerned him, but he figured that the prince would talk to him when he felt ready.

Coran never pushed those kids to do anything they weren’t comfortable with, and he wasn’t going to start now.

From Hunk’s room he could hear his load snore, which made him laugh a little; and from Pidge’s room he couldn’t hear anything, but he saw the light on below the door, indicating that she was still up.

Normally Coran would enter and tell her to go to bed, but the olkari never really listened to him. And, by now, staying up all night was a normal thing for her, so the altean didn’t see a point to care anymore. She knew her limits, so who was him to tell her what to do?

Keith’s and Shiro’s rooms were empty, but that was normal. The two wanted to pass that last night in their home, with their friends and family, so they were not on the Castle yet.

At least that’s what Coran though.

Because after entering the kitchen he could see feet in front of the open refroster, and he knew those shoes.

“Shiro?” he said stepping closer.

The human jumped in surprise and closed the refroster door, to Coran’s surprise he was still dressed in his mission clothes.

“You scared the _tarta_ out of me, Coran!”

“What are you doing here at this hour, my boy?” Coran asked with a concerned look.

At that Shiro seemed insecure, like he was doing something wrong.

“I just wanted something to drink, that’s all,” he replied looking down.

“Let me get it for you,” Coran replied with a soft tone, he didn’t know why, but Shiro seemed small. Maybe it was because his shoulder were down... “I didn’t know you were staying with us tonight.”

“Oh…” that’s all the human said when Coran made him sit by the counter. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to be ready, you know?”

“It’s not a problem, just a surprise.” Coran gave him a reassuring smile and walked over the refroster. “Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah, Black is not letting me.” Coran looked at him like he had grown a second head, so Shiro hurried to explain: “She can’t stop sending me exciting vibes, I guess she’s happy.”

That made Coran smile again before replying:

“She finally got her paladin, that’s a pretty great thing.”

“Yeah… I suppose.”

Coran closed the refroster and sat in front of the human with a very worried look on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing,” Shiro replied looking away. “I don’t want to be a bother, you know?”

“You are not a bother, my boy, in fact it’s my job to take care of all you,” even though Coran said that with a smile, Shiro still seemed insecure. “Want to have a drink with me?” he asked raising a shiny blue bottle.

“What is it?” Shiro asked while Coran poured the sparkly liquid in two large glasses.

“It’s _burlart_ , the best drink you’ll have in your life!” Shiro kept looking at him with confuse eyes and Coran completed: “it’s basically ferment fruit juice.”

“Oh!” Shiro said taking the glass. “Like wine?”

“What is _wine_?”

“An Earth drink made basically of fermented fruit juice.”

“Exactly like wine.”

Both men laughed and made a small toast before drinking, the blue liquid invaded Shiro’s mouth and he felt the strong taste of alcohol mix with a more sour ingredient, probably the fruit part. He swallowed and allowed the warm feeling go down his throat, he could still taste the fruit, whatever that was. It’s was a strange but not unwelcome taste, he quite enjoyed it.

“Did you like it?” Coran asked already pouring himself another glass.

“Yeah, it’s warm.”

“Does it taste like wine?”

“I don’t know,” Shiro replied lowering his glass. “I wasn’t old enough to taste it back on Earth.”

They stood in silence for a few ticks and Shiro stared the remaining liquid on his glass while Coran finished his second.

“You were taken quite young, hum?” Coran asked without looking at Shiro, the human was very thankful for that since he didn’t want Coran to notice his shaky hands.

“Yeah…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Shiro finished his glass with a large gulp before replying:

“Not really.”

“It’s alright,” Coran said filling their glasses one more time. “We don’t have to talk about these things right now. Or ever if don’t want to.”

“Thanks, Coran,” Shiro replied taking another sip of _burlart_ , his head was starting to get fuzzy.

“But you want to talk about something.” It wasn’t a question.

“Do I?”

“Yes,” Coran said taking his forth glass, Shiro was falling behind but he didn’t care, “or you wouldn’t be here in the middle of the night.”

“I guess you’re right.”

They went silence again and Coran waited more than patiently. Shiro looked at him and allowed a small laugh escape his lips, _guess there’s no getting out now_ , he thought.

“I worried about Voltron,” he said finishing his second glass.

“Explain, please?” Coran asked getting up to go to the refroster again.

“Well, according to the princess and everyone else, I’m supposed to _lead_ now. And make all the big decisions, and to be the _Head of Voltron_ ,” he walked as Coran got another bottle out the refroster (a pink one this time) and continued: “I’m so fucking scared.”

“Why?” Coran asked sitting back down.

Shiro watched the altean pour the pink liquid in his cup, he grabbed the glass before replying:

“I was raised as a soldier, Coran, I’m great at following order, I’m even great at suggesting stuff from time to time, but… I have no idea on how to lead! How am I supposed to learn this kind of stuff? Or worst, what if I ruin everything because I’m just really bad at it?”

While Shiro was saying all those things Coran kept looking at him with understanding eyes, and he waited patiently until the human was done to reply.

“Did you know that the first Balck Paladin was Zarkon?” by the surprise in Shiro’s eyes, he guessed not. “It’s true, before all this Zarkon and King Alfor were really good friends. And Alfor gave the Black Lion to Zarkon because he knew he was the better leader.” He sighed before continuing: “And what a leader he was… always prepared for anything, always came up with this miracle plans that saved the day... the other paladins followed him without hesitation because they knew they were in good hands. Zarkon was a natural at it, an actual born leader.” He looked right into Shiro’s eyes and completed: “and he still betrayed us all.”

The both of them felt a wave of hurt coming from the Black Lion and Shiro had no words.

“The second black paladin was better,” Coran continued drinking his fifth glass of _burlart_ , “she was really strong; fearless and kind. Beloved by the other paladins and feared by our enemies, she was a natural leader as well. And yet... she died...”

Shiro looked at Coran and all the altean did was to poke his glass, Shiro gave the pink liquid another look before finally taking a sip. It was sweeter and it felt colder, but he still liked it.

“Black knows how to pick strong leaders,” Coran said gesturing for Shiro to keep drink, which the human obeyed, “maybe the reason she choose you was not because you’re _are_ a leader ,” he gave Shiro a warm smile and finished: “but perhaps it was because she knows you could _become_ the greatest of them all. Even better than Zarkon.”

Shiro blushed and finished his pink drink before asking:

“Do you really believe that?”

Coran kept smiling and replied:

“Yes, I do.”

It was Shiro’s turn to smile.

“Thanks Coran,” he raised his empty glass and gave the altean a confused look, “What exactly was that?”

“Fruit juice,” the altean replied, “the non-ferment kind.”

“It’s really good.”

“I figured you humans don’t know how to drink properly so I switched the drinks before you got sick.”

“Very thoughtful,” Shiro’s replied sarcastically.

“It’s not my fault you have such a gentle stomach,” Coran said with a good mood.

Shiro made a insulted noise and Coran laughed, his laugh was so contagious that Shiro didn’t manage to keep that insulted pose for long and was soon laughing too.

After a while Coran said they really should try to get some sleep.

“Thanks for listening, Coran,” Shiro said getting up to go to his new room, “it was really helpful.”

“Anytime,” Coran replied putting the drinks away. “And Shiro?”

The human stopped on his tracks and looked at Coran, the altean had a gentle smile on his face.

“Don’t worry so much about this leadership thing, Black will take great care of you.” He then added: “She’s an amazing teacher.”

“That’s exactly what Lance said,” Shiro said with a confused look.

“Because it’s true,” Coran replied with a matter of fact tone, “Now go to bed, we have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Okay, good night,” Shiro said walking away.

He heard Coran’s reply and smiled, it’s had been forever since someone took care of him, even if only a little. And he didn’t realized how much he missed it. Black sent him a new wave of warm feelings, reminding him that he was not alone anymore; that there was always going to be someone to take care of him. Because now they were family.

He didn’t have any nightmares that night or for a long time after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Remember when I said that the characters would need time to build themselves? I was serious about that, especially about Shiro since in this AU he’s not a hero, he’s not THE Takashi Shirogane. He’s just a poor boy who was taken by aliens and raised to be their champion. So this Shiro is way more insecure and scared. He (and Keith) will definitely need their time to get used to their new positions. But that’s for the next chapters :)  
> I am trying my best to make a good story and a good au, and I’m really thankful you got the time to read this. It means a lot to me. And please, do feel free to leave comments. I read every single one of them, they make my day and inspire me to write better content for you.  
> I’ll try my best to update soon. And I hope I’ll see you in chapter 14!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lotor are frustrated

Arus was quiet, with blue skies and no life forms on sight. Allura said that it was a rather young planet that was still forming itself, and wouldn’t get unwanted attention since most system didn’t even know it existed.

It was the perfect place for the training of the new paladins of Voltron.

Shiro scared every one when the first thing  he did out of the castle was to drop of his knees and grab the grass around him, Keith was particularly shocked when he saw tears in his best friend’s eyes.

“Shiro?” He called unsure of himself, lightly touching Shiro’ shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” the champion replied with fists full of grass. “I just never thought I would see green grass again.”

“You miss Earth, don’t you?” Lance asked touching his other shoulder.

Shiro didn’t respond, but he did give Lance a little sad smile.

“I miss Altea too,” the prince replied with the very same smile and offered Shiro his other hand, helping the human to stand.

They started to walk away and Lance gave Shiro a light pat on the back, showing him that he understood. The others followed with the exception of Keith. The new red paladin didn’t move. He just stood there watching them walk away.

For some reason the sight of Shiro and Lance walking away together was weird and, maybe, a little painful. After all Shiro was _Keith’s_ best friend, Lance had on business by talking to him. And more: how come Lance was so friendly with literally _everyone_ except Keith?! That altean spoiled brat even managed to make friends with Antok, Ulaz and Thace! Not even Kolivan was completely immune to the prince, since Keith was caught the absurd sight of watching them laugh together that one rare time.

And yet when the altean prince talked to Keith is was like a switch being turned. Lance wouldn’t even look at him in the eyes and always found an excuse to avoid him. Keith didn’t understand what was going on, especially since (in the beginning) they were starting to warm up to each other… that is, before Keith got the Red Lion.

Was that the reason why Lance was being so distant?

“Alright Paladins,” Allura said, breaking his line of thought. “Zarkon’s empire grows more every day, so your train starts today.”

“What exactly are we supposed to do?” Hunk asked a little nervous.

“You’ll have the same training as the previous paladins,” Allura replied with a reassuring smile, “which include team building exercises, fight and flight training, bonding with your lions and, obviously: forming Voltron on command.”

“That’s a lot,” Shiro said exchanging a look with Keith.

“Yes it is,” Allura said standing taller than ever. “Shall we begin?”

 

* * *

 

 

Lotor didn’t know how long he’s been in the training room, and honestly: he didn’t really care. All he knew is that his father send him away after Keith’s rebellion and wasn’t tell him anything anymore. So, naturally, the older prince was furious.

Normally he would vent out his anger on a new toy in his favorite torture cell, but Haggar had claimed all the prisoners for a new experiment and Lotor preferred to cut his own tongue off and burn his eyes than to go and ask her.

So his solution was to beat the crap out of the training droids. It wasn’t as much fun since the droids didn’t scream or cry or contort themselves in pain, not to mention that they didn’t bleed or begged. But the prince made do.

So far he had broken six of them and the room was filled with robotic parts, some were still moving and that kind of served as a comfort for him (for now at least). His arms were starting to get tired and he was more and more aware that he was getting sweaty and messy, which he really didn’t like.

“What’s wrong?” Sendak asked behind him.

That only served to frustrate the prince even more, Zarkon would have been furious if he saw Lotor being caught off guard. He groaned still busy by tearing the seventh droid apart with his hands (he drop the sword on the third droid since it was slowing him down), not really looking at Sendak.

But the commander was not letting it go so easily.

“Is this about Keith?”

Lotor really didn’t want to answer that, he didn’t want to say anything at all! He didn’t even want to look at anyone right now, not even Sendak. Because Sendak was not supposed to be there! And since Lotor was weak they would only anger Zarkon even more!

Any other soldier would let Lotor be, but Sendak was not any other soldier. So when Lotor finished ripping the droid’ second arm, Sendak was right in front of him. His arms were crossed and he looked bothered.

Why was everyone so angry at him?!

“What do you want?” Lotor asked finally looking at the commander, the droid (or what was left of him) was completely forgotten between them.

“I want you to talk to me.”

“My father will not like this,” Lotor said tucking his hair in a high ponytail, he felt his hair sticky and made a mental note to take a bath as soon as possible.

“You don’t really care about that,” it wasn’t a question.

Normally Lotor would have agreed, but not now.

“But you care, right?” he said getting up, Sendak’s expression got sour but Lotor was too deep to care. “All those times that we were together you never stopped caring about what father would say.” Lotor picked his sword and his vest of the floor. “So don’t act like you really care about me and leave. Me. Alone.”

Sendak didn’t have an answer, but Lotor wasn’t really caring at that point. He just wanted to take his bath and sleep, that was not much to ask. Right? So with a final look to Sendak he turned and walked to the door.

Sendak’s robotic arm flew right next to Lotor’s head and hit the door with a loud bang, the prince felt the air shifting by his ear and his cheek got scratched. The room was filled with silence and in an automatic move Lotor brought his hand to his face. It was not like he was bleeding uncontrollably, but that single drop of blood was enough to make him turn to the commander.

Lotor honestly didn’t know who moved first, but in a blink of an eye the two of them were running towards each other. Both with sword in hand ready to cause serious damages. 

It wasn’t uncommon for the two of them train together when they were little, Zarkon actually insisted on it. And at that time the two boys didn’t really care for each other, so it was very easy for them to actually hurt one another. Lotor still remembered very clearly when Sendak broke his arm for the first time and how much he enjoyed breaking four of the commander’s teeth in response.

But they were not kids anymore.

And that wasn’t training.

Lotor did managed to cut Sendak in the face and almost chopped his ear off, but the flying robotic arm threw him of balance and suddenly the prince needed to drop on his back to avoid Sendak’s claws.

“What’s this all about?” Sendak asked pushing Lotor.

 “Why do you care?” The prince’s nose started to bleed.

The commander punched him a couple more times until Lotor saw an opening and rolled away avoiding Sendak’s last punch, the commander’s fist got buried in the cement and getting stuck. While Sendak was trying to free himself Lotor took that opportunity to stand and attack again, but the commander ditched his trapped prosthetic and dodged.

“You are angry,” Sendak said dodging a couple more strikes, “That’s good, channel that into something useful and talk to me”.

There was an opening in Lotor’s stance and Sendak took it, changing their positions. Now Lotor was the one doing the dodging.

“What’s there to talk about?” the prince growled, “My father? Who still likes Keith more even though Keith was the one who rebelled?!” Sendak managed to get four deep claw marks in his arm, but Lotor didn’t flinch. “How about we talk about my mother? That stuck up bitch who prefers to bow down her head to every order Zarkon gives her?!”

The prince managed to punch Sendak right in the face, breaking his nose. The pain made the commander close his eyes and Lotor pushed him almost succeeding into making the commander lose his footing.

“Shall we talk about me then?” Lotor attacked again with the word, but Sendak managed to block it. “The bastard with altean blood who never gets anything right?!”

Sendak punched him again making Lotor spit blood, the prince growled and kicked him in the legs making the commander’s back hit the floor.

“Or shall we talk about you?” he asked before kicking Sendak. “You who were supposed to be the love of my life… and yet would trade me for my father in a blink of an eye.”

“That’s not true,” Sendak replied with a hand on his stomach, Lotor’s pointy boots have always been a problem.

“Let’s not lie to each other, Sendak. It doesn’t suit us.” Lotor gave him another kick and moved back a few hair strands that made their way to his face.

He was exhausted. Every inch of his body hurt and he really needed that bath, and that exhaustion only got bigger when he looked down at Sendak. The commander was not in better conditions and Lotor suspected that in one of those kicks he got to break a rib or two.

The prince had won, but it didn’t feel like it. Not at all.

“So commander,” Lotor said moving the sword to Sendak’s throat, “what now?”

They were looking each other right in the eyes and what Lotor saw wasn’t defeat or anger or fear, nothing like that. Because Sendak’s eyes were shining and they made Lotor’s heart beat much more louder.

“You don’t need to put a sword in my throat to know that my life belongs to you,” he said moving the blade away with a finger.

Lotor didn’t know what to reply, so he only watched as Sendak moved to stand again.

“And you got me wrong,” the commander continued, “I don’t fear Zarkon, at least not like you think.” He walked pass Lotor and started to take his robotic arm of the floor. “I don’t really care on what he can do to me, because I don’t matter” he said looking straight into the prince’s eyes. “You, on the other hand, are one of the most precious beings in the universe. And I fear what he would do to you.”

Lotor crossed his arms and looked away.

“You are just saying that-“

“You have no idea on how important you are to me,” Sendak replied standing in front of him. “I’m your father’s commander, that true, I killed for him countless of times.” He touched Lotor’s face and made their eyes met again. “But I would only die for you.”

Honestly, on normal circumstances Lotor would have laughed to the point of tears, since Sendak was the least romantic being that he knew. Galra soldiers didn’t have time for love after all. And besides romance was not something the galra prince craved, so he never really bothered.

But now it felt different, like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders; like he could breathe again. The prince caught tears in his eyes, not from laughter but from something more deep. Because never in his life he had ever felt that kind of relieve.

Sendak was waiting with open arms and Lotor ran to him wasting no time to hide his face in the commander’ shoulders.

“You are ridiculous,” Lotor whispered, and he meant it.

That whole situation was just ridiculous and honestly? He didn’t care.

Their kiss was desperate, they were both trying to erase their previous fight, and it tasted like blood. Lotor's breath hitched when Sendak touched his injured arm and the commander winced when the prince hugged him back.

They were both beaten to the pulp and it only added to the ridiculously of the situation. Now, _that_ made Lotor laugh.

“You would die for me, hum?” Lotor asked kissing Sendak again.

“Don’t you doubt me.” He replied with a smile.

Lotor only stopped the kiss when their broken noses touched, it didn’t hurt that much, but it was still very unpleasant. So, with a final kiss, the prince started to pull Sendak to the door.

“Where are we going?” Sendak asked embracing his broken ribs.

“We are going to get patch up,” Lotor replied not letting go of his hand. “And then we are taking a bath.”

That made the commander laugh and they kept walking.

“I like this plan.”

None of them noticed the hooded figure watching in the end of the hall, her fists were tight and her eyes glowed with rage, Haggar was not pleased with her son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I keep saying how much I like to write the interactions certain characters have with each other, but I must admit: Lotor and Sendak’s is one of my favorites, it just flows so beautifully! I think this is one of my favorite ships.  
> Well, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you liked it. It’s been hard since it’s been so long, and English is still quite difficult, but I really miss Voltron and I guess this is my way to express my love for the show.   
> And I also hope you see you again in chapter 15!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor is happy, Allura is worried and it's all a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, even though the original series is taking a different turn, I thought it would be at least something to keep trying to finish this story. So, yeah… let’s continue.

Lotor was being ignored by his father ever since Keith turned on them, not that the older prince minded. In fact he quite enjoyed the freedom that came with it and made a very good use of it.

He would sneak into Sendak’s quarters at night and the two of them would train in the public square at morning. He also started to visit the main prison again (completely ignoring his mother) to pick the next candidates to his “interrogations”. Those happened in the afternoon, right after lunch, and would go until it was night. Lotor came out of those covered in blood and with a wicked smile on his face, scaring the guards and the others around him.

What most shocked the guards was that in the end of every afternoon the prisioners would still be alive. They were completely broken and begging for death, but alive. The guards never understood how Lotor managed to spend hours torturing someone to the level of breaking not only bones, but also all kinds of hope, and that someone would still be alive at the end.

Those fools didn’t understand the care Lotor put on his “interrogation” sections. He was creating not only pain, it was also the most beautiful _art_ forms he could think of. The level of knowledge and effort it took him to not only break every bone of a body, but also stab and drowned it, causing the maximum pain and not ending the live of said body, was tremendous. But it was also the reason he was so good at it: he loved to defy boundaries, to push a body to its limits and to surprise and enjoy himself.

That’s what he was doing that day: defying boundaries. And getting a kick out of it as well (because why the hell not?).

A guard entered the chamber with a light knock and the scene in front of him was at the very least interesting: there was a pile of flesh beneath the prince, and the said prince had blood all over him, the red even managed to reach the white of his hair and a few teeth, which made his smile a bit more creepy. Lotor had something in his hands and it took the guard a second to recognize it as an organ (he was guessing a liver).

“What is it?” he asked playing with the organ that was still in his hands.

“Forgive me sir,” the guard had to take a second when the pile of flesh on the ground began to move, reaching something that resembled an arm at his direction. He didn’t know who it was or what they had become, but it was still moving and agonizing. “There’s news on Arus.”

“Oh?” Lotor wasn’t paying much attention. The arm touched his boot, but the prince ignored it.

“They said the Castle of Lions is there again.”

Now _that_ got the prince’s attention.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes sir.”

Lotor’s face had a cruel smile and he let the liver in his hands fall on the ground, right in front of the poor soul he was torturing.

“You can go now.” He said going to the door. “And tell someone to clean this up.”

The prince left the torture chamber and walked to his father’ throne room with confident steps. He just couldn’t wait to see the old man’s face.

“Father,” he called entering the room ignoring the curious eyes of the court.

“What do you want now?” Zarkon asked in the same disinterested way Lotor asked the guard a few minutes earlier.

“I found the Castle of Lions,” he said still smiling.

“Continue.” It drove Lotor crazy how his father was so good at hiding spontaneous reactions. That was a skill the prince did not have yet.

“Do you know a planet called Arus?”

 

* * *

 

In all honesty Allura thought that training the new paladins of Voltron was going to be almost impossible, but in reality it wasn’t that bad.

Pidge was fearless and had a great bond with Green; she, Lance and Hunk were already best friends so their bond was also very strong, and her friendship with Shiro and Keith was only getting stronger. Neither she nor Keith wanted to admit it, but they had very similar personalities and were (slowly) becoming very good friends.

Hunk was also coming out of his shell and realizing that “out there” wasn’t as scary as he believed. He loved Yellow and, although he was still getting used to the flying and fighting part, he was the only paladin who didn’t have a problem bonding with his team. Hunk was also becoming very interested in the kitchen and all the new ingredients that Coran found on Arus. The gentle giant could spend the entire afternoon talking about his fascination with the different tastes, textures and colors, and how badly he wanted to learn how to cook to make his friends happy .The princess smiled with just the memory of it.

Even Shiro, with all his insecurities of becoming a leader, was making a remarkable progress. Of course that fighting and flying were not a problem (since he was trained for that ever since he was little) but still amazed Allura on how fast Shiro was growing on his new role. It started slow, like he was ashamed of trying to tell the other paladins what to do (specially Keith), but now it was almost automatic.

It was just last week that she decided not to worry about him anymore. That day the training was cut short since Keith and Lance couldn’t stop arguing and were almost getting into a real fight.

“Alright guys, let’s take a step back,” Shiro said getting in the middle, already separating them with a gentle push. “It’s no one’s fault.”

“No one’s fault?!” Lance repeated in a disbelieving tone. “Are you joking? It’s _Keith’s_ fault that we can’t get pass this stupid maze!”

“It’s _your_ fault because you are completely incapable of listening!” Keith replied dodging Shiro’s grip and pointed at the altean’s face. “It’s like talking to a bratty kid! The only difference is that a kid would actually know when to stop!”

“At least I’m not the size of one.” Lance whispered in a mocking tone.

“What did you say?!”

“Keith…” Shiro called, but the galra prince ignored him to keep pointing and yelling at Lance.

The altean was also completely ignoring Shiro, focusing only on the fight in front of him. For a moment the black paladin didn’t know what to say, he was beginning to feel lost. Allura and Coran were looking at him, making it clear that they were not going to stop any more fights (that part of authority was Shiro’s and he couldn’t ignore it any more), Pidge was watching the whole thing with bored eyes, and Hunk was getting scared (he still wasn’t used to loud angry noises).

“I knew this was a bad idea!” Lance said crossing his arms.

“Guys…” Shiro tried calling.

“And I knew I should have left you in that _tarting_ meteor!” Keith replied getting inches away from Lance. “You are useless!”

“Guys!” Shiro tried again a little louder.

“And you are-“

“ENOUGH!” Shiro yelled pulling Keith (who was just about to jump on Lance’s throat) and pinched their ears. Now _that_ got their attention. “I don’t know why you two insist on fighting with each other, but I had it!” both of the princes looked down, like two kids who knew they were in trouble. “Kolivan and Allura were pretty clear, we need to get Voltron to save everyone. But Voltron depends on us,” Lance tried to get away, but Shiro’s grip on his ears was like steel. Keith refuse to look at anyone, but didn’t struggle. “So get your shit together and let’s train!”

The black paladin gave them one last glare before releasing their ears. Keith was with crossed eyes and still refused to look at anyone, while Lance was touching his ear with an offended look on his face.

“What do you say?” Shiro asked ignoring the insecurity in the back of his mind.

Keith gave him a betrayed look before taking a deep breath, Shiro knew him well enough to know that the galra prince was beginning to cool down. It even seemed like he was going to say something to Lance, but the altean prince walked away without looking at anyone.

“He’ll get around,” Allura said to no one in particular before releasing the rest of the paladins for the day.

It amazed the princess on how the memory of that day could calm her about one thing and deeply worry her on other. Sure, Shiro was beginning to act like a leader, but Keith and Lance’s bond was proving to be (at the very least) difficult. She was also still worried about Lance since not only he was hiding something (she could tell) but Coran also told her that he was starting to suspect Lance was not sleeping on his own room.

And to top it off: Keith was showing an incredible among of difficulty when it came to bond with anyone else beside Shiro. Which really amazed her since the galra prince showed a tremendous success in all the other fields of training.

“Good morning princess,” Coran said when she entered the control room.

“Good morning, Coran,” she replied with a smile. “Are they up yet?”

“Most of them.” He touched to control board and three screens appeared in front of her. There she could see Shiro and Keith training with the gladiator; Hunk exploring the kitchen and all of its wonders; and Pidge sitting in Green’s hangar surrounded by wires and mechanical parts.

“Where’s Lance?” She asked activating the camera in front of his room.

The door was closed and the camera did not picked any sound.

“He’s probably sleeping with his headphones on…” Coran said in what they both knew was a stretch. “Should I let him sleep a little more?”

“No,” she replied with worry in her voice. “Call the others for breakfast, I’ll have a talk with my brother.”

“Yes princess.”

Even though Allura’s steps seemed confident, that was the exact opposite on how she was feeling. She and Lance were pretty close and she knew him even better than she knew herself, so she _knew_ her brother had the bad habit of keeping things in. Lance didn’t like to bother others with his true feelings and acted like everything was fine all the time.

It never went well when she pushed Lance to share his feeling when he didn’t want to; it was always better to let him talk at his own time. So she really wanted to give him time and space to let him become comfortable with their new reality, so he could talk to her when he was ready.

This strategy usually worked, but not right now. It pained her to do this, but they didn’t have time. The universe was counting on Voltron, and Voltron was counting on them. She needed to know why Lance was being so difficult and she needed to know now.

But before she could reach Lance’s door the castle alarm went off.

Allura’s blood froze for a second and her heart skipped a beat, something was wrong and she needed to know what.

“Coran?” She called in the communicator that was installed on the wall. “What happened?”

“We are under attack!” There was so much back noise that Allura almost didn’t hear him. “They found the castle!”

“Quiznak!” she yelled and started to run.

Lance’s door was still closed and Allura opened it without even blinking.

“Lance!” Her call slowly died when she noticed that the room was empty.

Where was her brother?!

“Coran!” she called again after returning to the communicator. “Gather the paladins and activate the castle shields, I’m almost there.”

“I’m trying princess, but the system is not working!”

Allura cursed again, she didn’t need to be a genius to figure it out that this system failure was part of the galra attack. And she got even more furious because it was working! Without the shields the castle was vulnerable and it pushed the paladins to go to their lions. With the lions in the open (when they still weren’t fully capable of forming Voltron) made it easier for the galra to take them by force. They would kill the paladins and take control on the most powerful weapon in the universe!

But they would only do that over Allura’s dead body!

She ran as fast as she could but, before she could reach the control room, the hall in front of her got hit with a small explosion. The floor trembled and she lost her footing, the chandelier on top of her collapsed and almost hit her, but it did managed to trap her in the corner with loose metal parts. Allura would normally struggle, but the loose uncovered wires were dangerously close to her body and she forced herself to stay still.

“Allura!” Keith yell when he found her.

“Keith!” he got hold of her hand, and that somehow made her feel a little safer. “Please help me, we need to get out of this planet!”

“Hold on,” he said already pulling some metal part from her. He only stopped when he saw the wires. “Okay, I’m going to pull you out,” he got both her hands and took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”

“Y-yes.”

“Alright,” he them got her out with one strong pull right on time.

Because right after the princess was save, the rest of the chandelier that was still standing crumbled on the floor, spreading the wires even more and releasing dangerous shocks.

“Thank you, Keith,” she said crushing Keith in a grateful hug.

“N-no problem,” he replied not knowing what to do with his arms.

“We need to go back to the control room.”

And to the control room they were. Coran and the rest of the paladins (including Lance) were already there.

“Lura, what do we do?” Lance asked the moment she stepped inside the room.

“I don’t know yet,” she replied going to the consol. “Coran, what’s our status?”

“The shields are offline,” he replied looking at the monitors. “The canons and flight propellers as well… I’m sorry to say but we are stuck.”

“I can fix it,” Pidge said already going to one of the consoles, but Coran stopped her.

“I’m afraid we don’t have the time,” he said with a pained tone. “In less than two more hits the castle will be completely destroyed.”

“We need to get to the lions,” Keith urged.

“We can’t leave the castle!” Lance replied.

“If we don’t fight it won’t be a castle anyway!”

“Silence!” Shiro ordered going to Allura’s side. “Allura, what do you want us to do?”

The princess blood froze one more time and she looked at her new paladins. All of them trusted her, all of them would obey her without question, and all of them would die for her. That’s what they were trained to do. But that still didn’t mean she wasn’t responsible for their safety as well. She would never forgive herself if she made a wrong decision that resulted on her paladins getting hurt.

But, then again, sometimes she didn’t have any other choise.

Putting the lion in the open was the last thing she wanted to do, but there was no other way. And with a heavy heart she declared:

“Paladins, get to your lions. You must form Voltron and push the galra away from the castle.”

Lance still did not think that was a good idea, but that was Allura’s final order. And all he could actually do was give her one last look before following the others to gear up.

Allura observed as the lions flew into the sky and surround the single galra ship.

“That thing is massive!” Coran commented most to himself.

But the princess still replied:

“Even better, it’ll be impossible for them to miss it then.”

 

* * *

 

Lance had form Voltron a fair number of times, but that happened before the destruction of Altea with the previous paladins, which he fought and trained with ever since he could remember.

It felt different flying with these new beings. Sure he liked them all just fine (some more than others), was even best friends with half of them, but still... He couldn’t feel the connection, he couldn’t feel Voltron.

Before they took flight Shiro told them to focus on pushing the galra ship back, to take it away from the castle at all cost.

“We can’t form Voltron at will yet, so let’s focus on what we know we can do.”

But even that felt weird to Lance, mostly because they were so disorganized!

Hunk was bumping into him every now and then, Pidge had disappeared from their site without any warning, Shiro was giving so many orders that his voice was just backroom noise now and Keith was doing his own thing in silence.

When Lance became a paladin the first thing his father taught him was that the paladins needed to work as one and only then, when they _became_ one, Voltron could be formed.

But Lance was sure that was not happening that day, especially after Keith almost shot him with a laser.

“Watch it!” the blue paladin yelled.

“Sorry,” Keith growled. “You were in the way!”

“I was in the way?!” Lance’s face burned with anger. “How can I be in the way when I don’t even know where you are aiming at?!”

“Just pay attention!”

“I’ll pay attention kicking your butt!”

“I wanna see you try!”

“Guys!” Shiro yelled without much patience. “Focus!”

“They are shouting again!” Hunk said hiding behind Lance.

The castle got hit one more time, and Lance heard his sister scream in the communicator. His heart skipped a beat.

“Are you guys alright?” he asked still looking at the castle.

No response.

“Guys?” Lance asked one more time, his head was beginning to spin.

Still no response.

“Allura!” he called with a cracked voice.

“We a… h…re, Lan…e.”

Lance released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. The princess’ voice was breaking, but that was because the communication system was going down. She was okay.

“Listen up, team Voltron!” Shiro said again. “That was way too close. We can’t let that happen again.” He took a deep breath and continued: “The only way to succeed is to give it all you’ve got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?”

“Yes!” the other paladins replied.

Shiro was about to say something else, but the canon locked on Keith and fired. The Red lion flew a few meters away and it collided with Lance, pushing the Blue lion backwards. That pushed the Yellow lion as well, since Hunk was still hiding behind Lance. The three lions hit the tall rocks in a pathetic way.

Like Lance though: they were disorganized.

The galra canon was again pointed at the castle and at Shiro’s commands all paladins flew on top of it, trying their best to take it out.

They only saw the trap when it was too late.

The galras were aiming at the castle to lure them to their gravitation field, it would pull the lions to the ship and, once they were trapped inside, the paladins would be lost. And that was exactly what was happening.

Lance fought with the controls, but had no response.

“This is it!” he said trying to ignore the growing fear in his chest.

“It can’t end here!” Pidge said with a cracked tone. Lance knew how much she wanted to find her family and it pained him even more because he would not be able to help her.

He could also hear Hunk screaming, and he regretted one last time for not taking him home.

Even Keith with his “It’s been an honor flying with you guys” made tears fall from Lance’s eyes. The prince never had the time or patience to really talk to Keith, he was too caught up on his own mess and made no effort to make the galra feel at home. Now they were going to die and Keith would forever think that Lance did not care about him and was only a spoiled brat.

‘Way to leave an impression.’ Lance thought bitterly.

“No!” Shiro’s scream snapped Lance (and all the other paladins) back to reality, even Hunk stopped crying. “We can do this! We have to believe in ourselves. We can’t give up! We are the universe’s only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can’t fail! We _won’t_ fail! If we work together, we’ll win together!”

As Shiro said that Lance could feel the fear in his chest transform in something that resembled courage, and at the end when the Black paladin said they could win together, Lance actually believed it.

And there it was: their connection. Lance could feel it now, it was like a flame that grew beyond him and reached the other, uniting them in the same light. Uniting them to form Voltron.

Blue roared with the other lions and all the paladins were surrounded by a blinding light. Voltron was formed.

The sensation was a little familiar to Lance, he felt the presence of his fellow paladins in his head and could fell the pull from different decisions in his head. They were still not fully synced, which meant they wouldn’t be able to hold Voltron for too long. But right now it was more than enough.

And the galra ship, being alone, fell easily in the hands of the Defender of the Universe. It crumbled right in front of the Castle of Lions and when the only survivor made his way out of the debris, the lions were waiting completely surrounding him.

Commander Sendak, for the first time in his life, was defeated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been think about my ship tags and I’m not happy with them. Shiro/Allura don’t seem to have that much chemistry anymore and Thace/Ulaz is very boring to me, so I’ll probably spice things up a little. Don’t worry though, the main ship is still Lance/Keith.  
> Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter, please leave a comment if you want, and I hope to see you again in chapter 16!


End file.
